[Football] This rule about the linesman not putting his flag up for offside until the passage of play has finished

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Commander

Arrogant Prat
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,583
London
The NFL already has yellow flags for signaling penalties observed during a play by the referees. And red flags thrown by the team bench, usually by the head coach, for challenging the referee call on the field.
This would be good, but they should allow the fans to challenge the calls rather than the coach.
 


Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,967
The ones yesterday were ridiculous. 5 yards off in some cases. The player knows they are off, the linesman knows they are off and the crowd knows they are off. Yet we play on.

Keep them down for tight ones by all means but for the ones a biased dad in an under 13s game would flag for? What's the point?
 


Hotchilidog

Well-known member
Jan 24, 2009
9,129
The rule should be abolished

I get the point of it. But linos are oh so predictably playing it so ridiculously safe that it's creating these wierd phantom passages of play. Kind of like Schrodingers football. There is some football, but also there isn't. Everyone knows its going to be pulled back, but we're still playing football.

It's farcical. Linos should just be empowered to call it like they see it. Sure you'll get the odd cock up.

I ran the line yesterday morning, I allowed a goal which I reckon VAR, had it existed probably would have disallowed. But if it's a toenail, even if it's a knee, who cares? It's still not goalhanging, which is what offside was meant to stop
Exactly this.
 


MattBackHome

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
11,877
The NFL already has yellow flags for signaling penalties observed during a play by the referees. And red flags thrown by the team bench, usually by the head coach, for challenging the referee call on the field.
All well and good, but if they're not luminescent, or ideally flashing, then I'm not interested.
 




sully

Dunscouting
Jul 7, 2003
7,938
Worthing
There was one in the Wolves game midweek where a Wolves player was about a yard offside but there was no flag. He managed to fiddle about out wide for a while and then won a throw, which quickly became a corner with no pull back to the offside - presumably because of the passage of time / play in between.
This meant that within a minute of getting away with being offside, they were directly attacking our goal when the ball should have been up the other end.
This probably happens quite often.
 


Deadly Danson

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Oct 22, 2003
4,615
Brighton
I get the premise behind it, but it doesn’t work, and just ruins the flow of the game, and winds the fans up who get on the linesman's back for not flagging. It happened numerous times yesterday, when the Linesman was just following the rules but a large proportion of the fans don't understand the rule.

It's another example of bringing in a rule to try to improve the game that makes sense in theory, but when you put it into practice it doesn't work. Sometimes you need to put these things into practice to realise they aren't a good idea.

But why can’t the flag have a button on it that the Lino presses to say ‘I know it’s offside but I won’t flag for it yet as I’m allowing the phase of play to play out”. Then if the attacking team score from it, he puts his flag up and disallows the goal. If they don't, then we play on. The flag could light up or something so the fans know what’s going on. The game can then continue without an unnecessary stoppage, and the linesman doesn't get continuous abuse every time there is an offside.

Problem solved.
I don't mind the new way and we certainly can't go back to the old method but, seriously if light up flags aren't introduced by Christmas, preferably flashing and multicoloured, then I'm very happy to organise the PBOBE OUT demonstration.
 


JBizzle

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2010
6,235
Seaford
I get why they changed it. And I’m not suggesting get the old system back. I’m suggesting that in practice the system doesn’t work as well as it does in theory, so tweak it and make it work properly in practice.
It's a "best solution" not a "perfect solution". Case in point was when Forest broke yesterday and it looked to me like both players were miles off, lino didn't flag and Forest then won a corner. There's no recourse for moments like that.

Unless, of course, he just wasn't offside and I'm blind (which is possible)
 






Super Sub

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2016
273
I like the concept in giving close calls the chance to play out but for me there are huge negatives to this new rule... Corners can still be gained even if someone was offside. I think Players can still be booked but may be wrong on this one. The biggest negative for me though is that a player could get injured during this play on phase when it could have been avoided if the flag had been raised.
 


Flounce

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Nov 15, 2006
4,278
A pedant writes, they are laws not rules aren’t they?

I get why it’s done but not when it’s absolutely 100% offside
 








Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,630
It's a "best solution" not a "perfect solution". Case in point was when Forest broke yesterday and it looked to me like both players were miles off, lino didn't flag and Forest then won a corner. There's no recourse for moments like that.

Unless, of course, he just wasn't offside and I'm blind (which is possible)
Yes, because presumably what should happen is that the game is called back for the original offside.

But that isn't what seems to happen. Too much water under the bridge for the lino to flag it seems?
 




Deadly Danson

Well-known member
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Oct 22, 2003
4,615
Brighton
It's a "best solution" not a "perfect solution". Case in point was when Forest broke yesterday and it looked to me like both players were miles off, lino didn't flag and Forest then won a corner. There's no recourse for moments like that.

Unless, of course, he just wasn't offside and I'm blind (which is possible)
But that wouldn't change. If the lino didn't think they were offside then he wouldn't flag anyway. If he had thought they were offside then he would have flagged before the corner (although I think I know the one you meant and they looked miles offside)
 


dsr-burnley

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2014
2,634
They have changed the offside rule, in practice, to make it impossible for the linesman to judge offside. After all, if a team of three men with multiple cameras and computers and state-of-the-art graphics take 5 and a half minutes to judge it, there is no way a linesman can do it with one viewing. Hence, linesmen are told to wait if they aren't certain. (As well as the difficulty of judging offside to the inch instead of the foot, there is the added difficulty of judging an eyebrow against a knee.)

They should go back to the old offside rule, the one still applied in the Championship, that "level" is onside and that "level" is judged by the torso with no faffing about with shoulders and toes and such. And for VAR, the VAR man has 5 seconds with one still photo to judge, and if that photo doesn't conclusively prove that the lineman is wrong, then he is right.

(Or she, of course.)
 


Moshe Gariani

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2005
12,203
I really hate it specifically because it works against our team and will continue to all season. Our defensive solidity is made to look much less good than it really is and opposition teams/fans get the related boost of apparently threatening our goal when they've actually done nothing of the sort.
 


WhingForPresident

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Feb 23, 2009
17,269
Marlborough
As per my rant about the officials in the other thread: Elanga was clearly off from a long ball forward in the first half, Veltman beat him to the ball, then Forest won it back and played the ball through to Elanga, who was then onside, and play continued. As far as I can recall they didn't end up getting a shot away, but the lino not putting his flag up could've quite easily resulted in a goal. Would they disallow it with VAR if its a different passage of play? I know they should, but I'm not confident they would've done.
 






Uh_huh_him

Well-known member
Sep 28, 2011
12,138
It isn't managed consistently.
It's another one of the small margins the big clubs get.

WHL last season and Emirates this season.

Flags going up straight away for our offsides.
Played on until a shot for them.

at least once at WHL, a corner was given away as the lino decided to not flag at all, when the ref whistled for the corner.
 


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