[Football] Should we scrap the offside rule?

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Not for me, Clive.

You mean you want the thread kept open?

 

[birthofanorange]

God, it would be horrendous if it was scrapped. That said, I do think the margins are way too extreme, such as a finger or toe. A few simple adjustments would be far preferable.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

30 years ago, that is exactly what would have happened.

Now i'm much less sure.

I reckon the game would be more similar to what we see now than most here think. Fair that high lines would be a thing of the past, but I don't see that teams would be stationing 4 x 6 foot blokes on the 6 yard box and putting it in the mixer, that's conceding the midfield.

Got to say i'm not 100% sure what would happen and I reckon different manager's would approach the new rules in very different ways, but I reckon we would still primarily be a passing through the middle / quick break sort of team

I thought the offside rule came in to stop goal hanging and a clutter of bodies in the box with the spectacle reduced to a dull mess.

"In general, offside rules intend to prevent players from "goal-hanging"–staying near the opponent's goal and waiting for the ball to be passed to them directly. This was considered to be unsportsmanlike and made the game boring. In contrast, the offside rules force players not to get ahead of the ball, and thus favour dribbling the ball and short passes over few long passes"

 

[JBizzle]

It's a no from me. Mainly because I actually like the concept of offside. I just dislike it's application. If we end up with AI-assisted offsides and introduce the daylight rule again, then that works better for me, but others may hate that. Whatever happens, change it, scrap it, leave it as is... some people will hate it and some will love it.

 

[amexer]

only complicated in football Just make it foot over line like cricket tennis darts and am sure more

 

[Insel affe]

As an aside I didn't realise the problem of violence and abuse wasn't just an English problem.

You what, do you want some.....

I am pretty sure even with our so called dubious past we invented violence or even abuse.

 

[Easy 10]

My god, can you just imagine it ?

Dyche permanently placing DCL right on the keepers toes, waiting to receive the latest hoof so he can have a tussle and turn it in, or lay it off to some onrushing midfield no-marks for a goalmouth scramble.

I'd rather watch mixed pairs paralympic boules.

 

[MJsGhost]

Whatever happens, change it, scrap it, leave it as is... some people will hate it and some will love it.

As sure as night follows day

 

[Hamilton]

Abolishing the offside rule is going to reduce violence?



And there was me thinking that anti-social behaviour might have something to do with the disparity in opportunity, wealth, the standards of living and the poisonous media landscape we've allowed a few entitled privileged men foist upon us.

All the while it was just football.

and, er, No.

 

[schmunk]

God, it would be horrendous if it was scrapped. That said, I do think the margins are way too extreme, such as a finger or toe. A few simple adjustments would be far preferable.

There's the thing though. Offside is a black-and-white rule. You can't be 'a bit offisde' - you're either offside or you're not. There are no margins.

The current VAR process for measuring is suitable, if sometimes poorly applied. If the attacker is 1 pixel ahead of the defender, they're offside*.

Introduce some new rule, e.g. "clear air", then you're just performing the same 1 pixel measurement against a different part of the attacker's body. Exactly the same again if you introduce a fixed margin or thicker measuring lines. Ultimately you're measuring pixel vs. pixel.






* yes, I appreciate offside decisions are sometimes not as simple as that. I also appreciate that 1 pixel is a finite distance, but it's pretty small...

 

[Gabbafella]

Offside should be exactly that. None of this interfering with play, second or third phase nonsense. Any player offside and the flag goes up.
I've never understood the rule about players not interfering with play. All players are taking other players out of position, creating space for other players, drawing their attention away from other parts of the pitch and so on, therefore all players are interfering in one way or another, that's why they're on the pitch.

 

[Quebec Seagull]

It would certainly turn tactics as we know it upside down. Hoof ball? How to defend? Go back to some kind of libero? Man - man? Dump and chase a la NHL!? I'd like to see a game anyway.

NHL has dump and chase because the rink is smaller -- slapping the puck into the end boards means it stays in the offensive zone unless it takes a weird bounce near the goalie, who can then just shovel it out. And the better teams don't dump and chase all that often unless they've got a big, speedy line that can forecheck like mad and aren't afraid of taking or giving bone-crushing checks.

Getting rid of offside in football would be like removing the blue lines in hockey. Can you imagine the number of breakaways and odd-man rushes?!? Ta-bar-naaaaaac...

.

 

[Ali_rrr]

Well *if* this does happen, I'll let you all know. I doubt it will though.


Most people running the line don't know the rule anyway.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Part of me world like to see football with no rules whatsoever. It would be quite a spectacle. I think it would also reduce feigning injury.

 

[Swegulls]

NHL has dump and chase because the rink is smaller -- slapping the puck into the end boards means it stays in the offensive zone unless it takes a weird bounce near the goalie, who can then just shovel it out. And the better teams don't dump and chase all that often unless they've got a big, speedy line that can forecheck like mad and aren't afraid of taking or giving bone-crushing checks.

Getting rid of offside in football would be like removing the blue lines in hockey. Can you imagine the number of breakaways and odd-man rushes?!? Ta-bar-naaaaaac...

.

I can picture the Legion of Doom with Lindros, Renberg and LeClair in the 90's chasing the puck, U better stay away

 

[Quebec Seagull]

I can picture the Legion of Doom with Lindros, Renberg and LeClair in the 90's chasing the puck, U better stay away

Lindros and LeClair came to mind first for me, too, lol! Big, fast, strong and nasty: Lemieux, Jagr, Ovechkin, Lucic, Brett Hull, Cam Neely, Maurice Richard, Béliveau, Howe, Frank Mahovlich, Phil Esposito...

Peak Gretzky would have scored 300-400 points a season. 80s NHL was already pretty much pond hockey!

.

 

[Giraffe]

Yes. Why not. We could just stand Peter Ward, Glenn Murray and Bobby Zamora on the penalty spot to do the finishing with no running needed.

 

[schmunk]

NHL has dump and chase because the rink is smaller -- slapping the puck into the end boards means it stays in the offensive zone unless it takes a weird bounce near the goalie, who can then just shovel it out. And the better teams don't dump and chase all that often unless they've got a big, speedy line that can forecheck like mad and aren't afraid of taking or giving bone-crushing checks.

Getting rid of offside in football would be like removing the blue lines in hockey. Can you imagine the number of breakaways and odd-man rushes?!? Ta-bar-naaaaaac...

.

 

[Diablo]

sounds like I`m in minority but I`d scrap it. Hockey scrapped offside a few years ago with no ill effects !!

 

[stewart12]

i'm not sure it would automatically lead to a glut of goalhanging, and if it did it would be sussed out fairly quickly. I think it would fail more than it would succeed to be honest. Leaving a player up top doing literally nothing but hoping the ball comes to them would be too much of a waste of a player for most teams.

you don't have offsides in 5/6 a side leagues and I don't think I've ever really seen any blatant goalhanging, unless a team has someone who is absolute TRIPE and they just want him out of the way not causing any damage

it would undoubtedly change the game though- so much is based around that dynamic of the defensive line vs the attacking line trying to break it