Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Xu Yangyang, Zhao Liangchen, Liu Yi
FIFA recently approved the trial implementation of the new offside rule. The new rules stipulate that an offensive player will only be judged offside if the offensive player as a whole crosses the second-to-last defender. What are the implications and changes of the new offside rules? What are the problems? What are the far-reaching rule changes in the history of modern football? This issue will revolve around these topics -
Will "body hair offside" disappear?
Xu: In the past, the attacking player was level with the last second player on the defender and was not considered offside, but now the new rule is changed to say that the attacking player can be in front of that defender, as long as the last part of his body is not completely exceeded. The new rules make it more difficult for the defender and are beneficial to the attacker.
Zhao: The new rules have brought controversy, and many people have questioned that this change has brought about a change in the relative position of the offensive and defensive sides, making the once "body hair level offside" not a matter at all, and may give birth to a lot of "body hair level good balls", but from one boundary to another boundary judgment, the difficulty and error of the judgment have not been solved.
Xu: The designer of the new rules is former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who has been FIFA's director of global development for four years, and two years ago he interpreted the problem as: "If part of your body is in front of the defender's body, then you are offside." I hope that in the future, as long as any part of your body can score parallel to the defender, it will not be offside. These were Wenger's exact words. I think "body hair offside" will continue to exist, but from the front to the back.
Wenger
Liu: The new rules make it more difficult for the defender to create an offside, which used to be offside if the attacker exceeded a little, but now it is not offside without the whole body exceeding. Argentina lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia at last year's World Cup when both goals were blown offside. According to the new rules, both goals are good goals, because the physical excess is only within a millimeter. What is the reason for Wenger's advice? Does he think the score of the football game is not big enough?
Xu: The change of football refereeing rules has always followed a fixed development trajectory - it is beneficial to the attacking side, and all the designs are obviously beneficial to the attacking side, making the game more exciting, how can it be more exciting? Score more goals! That hasn't changed.
Liu: According to the new rules, past offside goals are likely to become good goals in the future, so the increase in the number of goals is a high probability event. In the UEFA Nations League final in October 2021, Mbappe's winning goal for France was the controversial goal, and the controversy was whether Spanish central defender Garcia took the initiative to poke the ball to Mbappe, if according to the new rules, there is no need to discuss Garcia's issue at all, Mbappe just poked out a little, not offside at all. If that's the case in the future, will Mbappe's goal rate skyrocket?
Zhao: One of the positive things about the new rule is that it will lead to the fact that the offside body part is not considered when the penalty is awarded, and the hands and arms are not counted when judging offside, but the body torso and position are used to determine whether the offside is offside, which is very troublesome. If the new rules are implemented, they can ignore these and go straight to "one size fits all".
Are the new rules more favorable to strong teams?
Xu: The referee rules are not set to eliminate disputes, but to maintain fair play, provided that the rules are implemented equally.
Liu: I don't think so, one of the big highlights of football is that it is unpopular, and if it is implemented according to this new rule, it is obviously beneficial to the strong teams. If it's all about strong teams beating weak teams, then what else is football to see?
Zhao: I see that there are quite a few dimensions of "equal treatment", and the strength of the team itself and the difference in tactical style make the impact of the new rules on them different. The new rules are clearly beneficial to the attacker, but in fact it is also a blow to the defender. From the data point of view, where the strong and weak clash, the number of attacks of the strong team is more most of the time, which means that they have more opportunities for offside, and with the trial of the new rules, the strong team will have more opportunities to attack effectively.
Liu: Strong teams like Italy play defensively and counter-attack, they also have to create offside, so the new rules are not friendly to teams with this style of play.
Xu: In the implementation of any rule, the team must adapt and follow the new rules. We often say "body hair level offside", the term actually appeared very late, it came into being after the appearance of VAR, because there was no way to determine body hair level offside with the naked eye. And the new rules were not introduced to eliminate controversy, because the cause of controversy is not in the rules, but in the "demons" of each of us.
The goal of the UEFA Nations League final just mentioned, the Spaniards generally believed that it was offside after the game, including Spain's international referees also published articles in the newspaper to complain about their national team, and the French generally believed that they were not offside, and the attitudes of the two sides were clear, it can be seen that the butt determines the head. In fact, any rule is loopholes, can only seek fairness as much as possible, this time FIFA's new rules are also to be trialed in the lower leagues before the 2023-2024 season, and do not say that they will be implemented immediately, so this time it is experimental.
In the 2010 World Cup match between England and Germany, Frank Lampard hit the crossbar and the ball bounced across the goal line, but the referee ruled that the goal was invalid
The regret of the Chinese women's football final 24 years ago
Zhao: The change in the offside rule is quite big, so what major rule changes have occurred in the history of world football?
Xu: The rules of football first appeared in 1863, and then gradually improved, and finally came to this point, which has always been dynamic, with a process of constant adaptation and change. The earliest football referees were not even equipped with whistles, which came later, and later assistant referees, bottom line referees, VAR goal-line techniques were added. I think the biggest impact change is the goal-line technique, because the biggest controversy in the game is not from offside, but from controversial goals, such as the goal that determined the winner of the 1966 World Cup. Now with gateline technology, such controversies are almost no longer there.
Liu: Right! In the 2010 World Cup, Frank Lampard's goal against Germany did not count, it was an eternal pain for England.
Xu: To tell you firsthand, in the 1999 Women's World Cup, the final final between the Chinese and American women's football teams was held at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles. At that time, Fan Yunjie bounced off the goal line after the header bounced on the goal crossbar in extra time, and the slow-motion replay afterwards was very clear, but the goal was not confirmed, and the penalty won the Chinese women's football team and finally finished second. But it's hard to blame the referee, there was no bottom line referee at that time, the lineman and the referee were too far from the goal, and the position was not good, and they did not dare to whistle easily without absolute certainty, after all, the format at that time was "sudden death", and there were hosts to participate, I am afraid that no one dared to blow this whistle, and could not bear such a big responsibility. I was there at the time and I felt very humiliated.
Zhao: If the competition had been held 20 years later, it might have been completely different. With the goal line technology, the referee can't throw the pot, and he can't say that his eyesight is not enough, which is beyond the ability of people. Then an obvious goal, he can only judge, technological progress has the potential to rewrite history.
Liu: I think offside has always been an eternal topic of contention in football. Whether there was no VAR before, and then there was VAR, it is always controversial because it is a very subjective thing.
Xu: In the past, FIFA used to have a big mistake in the Blatter era – mistakes are part of football. I think this statement is inaccurate, controversy is part of football.
Zhao: This sentence is very marketable, and I partially agree with it, but I think that the occasions where this sentence applies should be distinguished, controversy is indeed part of football, but if it comes to top competitions such as the World Cup and the European Cup, the interests and influences involved are too great. Football managers have to do something to minimise controversy, that's the gesture they have to make, and they need to set the most basic principles of fairness and keep improving.
Inzaghi
The bottom line of referee enforcement: no double standard
Zhao: Speaking of the change in refereeing rules, I think of the fact that a defender was awarded a foul when he made 100% of his tackle from behind, starting with Basten retiring from injury, but even so, many of the back tackles were still not awarded.
Xu: The referee's decision is subjective, not from the front back, but from the side? What about a little sideways? So I think it's actually hard for judges to enforce the law.
Liu: For example, English referee Taylor caused a lot of controversy in the Europa League final last season, and that penalty was not awarded. Jose Mourinho also lashed out at him after the game and even abused him in the parking lot, for which he was suspended. In the 2021 UEFA Nations League final, Mbappe's goal was effective, and the referee at that time was still this Taylor, who may be regarded as a "tainted" referee.
Xu: Taylor's two penalties are actually leaning in the direction of not being offside, which shows that his understanding of the scale of punishment is consistent. I think it's good for the referee to keep the penalty scale consistent. Each referee's grasp and understanding of the adjudication rules is different, and the most important premise is to maintain the consistency of law enforcement.
Zhao: Makes sense! Referees just can't double standards. In addition, the "retreat" of the offside line, although the judgment is still within millimeters, but the judgment line is changed from the front to the back, I think it may make the moment of anti-offside lose the exciting feeling of the past, like Inzaghi "men living on the offside line", may also be difficult to appear in the future. (For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pai pai.ycwb.com)
Source | Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng Pie
Image | Visual China
Responsible Editor | Ryuki