We’ve all seen people screaming at the TV screen about the offside rule in football matches. Maybe up until now, you’ve been agreeing or adding a non-committal grunt.
Admit it. You don’t really have a grasp on the offside rule in football.
The offside rule can famously go over the heads of casual fans. But do you want to know the big secret about it? It’s actually not really all that complicated.
Read this article and get it straight in your head. So next time you’re watching the Women’s Super League, the Men’s Premier League, an international or a local game, you’ll know exactly what the offside rule in football really means.
Keeping a two-player distance away from the goal
Alright, now we’re going to tackle the offside rule in football. Imagine Team A and Team B are playing against each other. In order to abide by the offside rule, there has got to be two Team A players between any active Team B player and the Team A goal. But this only counts if the Team B player is on the Team A half of the pitch.
An active Team B player is defined as anyone who’s involved in the play in any way, for example if they’re involved in a pass. If they’re not, the offside rule doesn’t apply to them. However, throw ins are exempt.
And yes, a goalkeeper counts as one of those two Team A players. More often than not, they’re there anyway, so it makes sense.
The offside rule in football leads to more interesting games
It might be hard to understand that a technical rule like this leads to more interesting games, but it’s true. The reason the offside rule in football is there is to discourage people from being too close to the goal. When someone is too near to the goal, it’s way easier to score. That takes so much of the technical skill out of the game and makes things waaaay less interesting.
It’s all about the linesmen
The power of determining who is and isn’t offside lies with the linesmen. You can spot a linesman easily, because they’ve got cute little flags they wave when someone’s offside.
But as well all know, everyone makes mistakes. So they’ve got a Video Assistant Referee as back up, in case there’s any dispute over if a player was offside.
Free kicks and offside violations
If there’s a rule, there’s got to be a punishment. And in the case of the offside rule in football, offending teams effectively gift the other side a free kick.
Of course, any goals that are scored when a player is offside are also null and void.
In 1863, the world is introduced to the offside rule in football
The offside rule in football is well over a century old. It was first introduced by the Football Association (England’s footie governing body) in 1863. However, originally it required three players from the opposing team to be between you and the goal. It wasn’t until 1925 that it was eventually changed to the two-player offside rule.
Betting on the offside rule in football
It also might interest you to know that it’s possible to place offside bets on certain online sportsbooks. For example, bet365 carry interesting offside betting options, especially on bigger matches. There’s also great accumulator options, if that floats your boat. And if you’re new to the site, you can grab a great welcome offer with this bet365 bonus code. They’ve also got live streaming if you fancy trying to watch out for offside violations yourself, now that you’re in the know.
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