Referees’ Performances | 2024/2025

even on the run the lino should be well up with play to see that.
But that’s not what PL, IFAB and PGMOL demand and the assistant doesn’t have a choice.

Delaying the flag for offside

When an immediate goalscoring opportunity is likely to occur, the assistant referee will keep their flag down if they think there is an offside until the passage of play is completed.

Once a goal is scored or the chance is gone, the assistant will raise the flag to indicate the initial offence.

If a goal is scored, the VAR will review the offside call. This weekend, incidents of a goal being scored and the assistant raising their flag occurred twice. The referee does not need to go to the Referee Review Area (RRA) as the decision is factual.
 
Bollocks mate if the lino cant see thats offside they have no business officiating at sunday league level never mind the pl
Have you ever tried to run the line ? It’s incredibly difficult be it at Sunday league or indeed PL particularly when players are moving backwards and forwards or indeed when there are number of players close together or indeed say a defender is close to one touchline and the attacker is a distance away. Then you have the issue of is the player involved in the play or do they become active in second phases.
Of course many are clear cut and the Forest player was obviously off but that injury came about because of the IfAb directive.
 
Have you ever tried to run the line ? It’s incredibly difficult be it at Sunday league or indeed PL particularly when players are moving backwards and forwards or indeed when there are number of players close together or indeed say a defender is close to one touchline and the attacker is a distance away. Then you have the issue of is the player involved in the play or do they become active in second phases.
Of course many are clear cut and the Forest player was obviously off but that injury came about because of the IfAb directive.
yes i have run the line on many occasion and quite simply there is no angle running or not running that a competent official would not be able to see that the player is clearly in an offside position , there is 2 yards clear daylight between them and the last man.
 
yes i have run the line on many occasion and quite simply there is no angle running or not running that a competent official would not be able to see that the player is clearly in an offside position , there is 2 yards clear daylight between them and the last man.
Sorry but if you have run the line then I would suggest that you haven’t run it well if you judge a situation as you describe as obvious.Of course some are obvious but certainly not all.
For instance if you are looking at a player coming back from an offside position and the ball is launched from the keeper ( not a goal kick ) how can you possibly see the point of release and the exact position of the forward attacking and the defender coming out ?
You can’t be looking at both issues , sound takes a fraction of a second longer and if you then add in the fact that if it’s thrown you won’t have any assistance at all from noise
 
I would question if you have run the line also if you dont feel that clear daylight between the players constitutes an obvious offside call.
 
I would question if you have run the line also if you dont feel that clear daylight between the players constitutes an obvious offside call.
It depends on the exact fraction of a second that gap materialised. As previously mentioned, it’s virtually impossible to focus simultaneously on the ball being played and the relative position of the players if the pass is coming from thirty or forty yards away.
 
It depends on the exact fraction of a second that gap materialised. As previously mentioned, it’s virtually impossible to focus simultaneously on the ball being played and the relative position of the players if the pass is coming from thirty or forty yards away.
yet refs and linesman managed more often than not for decades before var materialised
 
Everyone’s giving the Lino’s to much respect here. Before VAR they were blatant at flagging players off when they were onside & vice versa. The champions league game at Anfield was corrupted as fuck.
 
Sorry but if you have run the line then I would suggest that you haven’t run it well if you judge a situation as you describe as obvious.Of course some are obvious but certainly not all.
For instance if you are looking at a player coming back from an offside position and the ball is launched from the keeper ( not a goal kick ) how can you possibly see the point of release and the exact position of the forward attacking and the defender coming out ?
You can’t be looking at both issues , sound takes a fraction of a second longer and if you then add in the fact that if it’s thrown you won’t have any assistance at all from noise
Fuck you would have to be Stevie Wonder to miss that offside!
 
Fuck you would have to be Stevie Wonder to miss that offside!

The only important question here is whether Massey didn't see it was clearly offside, in which case she is a poor linesman, or whether she properly kept the flag down as required by PGMOL.

It will be interesting to see what PGMOL say. Seems to me they are caught between a rock (VAR protocol caused the injury and its consequences) and a hard place (throwing Massey under the bus and its consequences) .....
 
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My understanding was that if there is an immediate goal scoring opportunity and it’s a tight offside then the flag stays down until that opportunity has gone. But what we are seeing is balls going down the channels to a winger with no immediate opportunity unless of course beating a full back, cutting inside the covering centre back and chipping the keeper from 25 yards is considered as one. Didn’t we suffer injuries the other season, maybe Laporte, from similar incidents where the player was two yards offside but play continued
Eddy twice one at Spurs in the PL title match and maybe Newcastle away when Walker slid into him
 
The only important question here is whether Massey didn't see it was clearly offside, in which case she is a poor linesman, or whether she properly kept the flag down as required by PGMOL.

It will be interesting to see what PGMOL say. Seems to me they are caught between a rock (VAR protocol caused the injury and its consequences) and a hard place (throwing Massey under the bus and its consequences) .....
I think she knew it was offside as she flagged when the phase of play came to an end.

I think the point is very much most offsides are clear cut but some aren’t and it’s those that are the issue.
 
I think she knew it was offside as she flagged when the phase of play came to an end.

I think the point is very much most offsides are clear cut but some aren’t and it’s those that are the issue.

That isn't the issue. The issue is trying to pretend there is any solution that is better for the game than having linesmen just flagging offside to the best of their ability.

I just don't get the logic. Firstly, not flagging is unnecessarily risky. Injuries will occur and, at some point, clubs or insurance companies will be looking to put a stop to it. Secondly, offsides are a matter of fact, they say, so here's an idea, let's ask linesmen to make a subjective call on the degree to which someone is offside and the likelihood of a goal-scoring opportunity arising.

It's all bollocks, introduced for all the wrong reasons. Imho, they should just let the poor bastard linesmen do their job .....
 
It wasn't as obvious an offside as it looked with Awoyini sprinting through and the defender moving in the opposite direction to play him off.

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The only important question here is whether Massey didn't see it was clearly offside, in which case she is a poor linesman, or whether she properly kept the flag down as required by PGMOL.

It will be interesting to see what PGMOL say. Seems to me they are caught between a rock (VAR protocol caused the injury and its consequences) and a hard place (throwing Massey under the bus and its consequences) .....

There’s a third opinion. Which is people sometimes get injured playing a physical game like football and it’s no-one’s fault.
 
There’s a third opinion. Which is people sometimes get injured playing a physical game like football and it’s no-one’s fault.
But surely a responsibility of the match officials is to reduce the dangers to players, officials and supporters as much as is reasonably practicable.
 
But surely a responsibility of the match officials is to reduce the dangers to players, officials and supporters as much as is reasonably practicable.

You can’t build the laws of the game around how can we reduce the chance of injuries at all costs, or you’d be playing no contact football.

What if the linesman flags immediately. They take a quick free kick and within a few seconds someone gets clobbered and seriously injured? That wouldn’t have happened if they’d delayed the flag.
 

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