Offside - The refs really don't understand it either

I thought  I understood the offside law, but am I getting it wrong? Two recent incidents have had me scratching my head. The most recent yesterday was in the Poland vs England game in Warsaw, when as assistant saw two England players, one of them in an offside position when the ball was kicked, running for a through ball.

The Italian assistant flagged for offside when both England players were at least 10 metres from the ball.
Now, Law 11 states that a player can only be flagged for offside if he is interfering with play, interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in his position, The Laws go into more detail, but trust me, those Engand players were not in breach of any of thise conditions. The player who had been in an offside position was 10 yards from the ball and the onside striker may well have got to it first. 
That reminded me of an incident a few weeks agi when I was running the line to a referee going for his Level 4. He wasn't being assessed in this match but in his instructions he made it plain that he wanted to see a flag for offside if a player was in an offside position and made a movement towards the ball. For him, that was sufficient to place the player in active play and therefore offside.
I made the point that I thought the law had changed to give attacking play more of a chance and that players were only now active if they actually touched the ball (a simplification I know), but the referee brushed this aside.
After the match, I was surprised enough to check all the Laws of the Game but it's clearly stated that a player does not become "active" until he touches the ball.
Fortunately the issue did not arise during the match. I can indeed be proved wrong, but I fear I'm right and that this referee may suffer for not being aware of these changes.