I have to confess I've been scouring the Law 11 offside rules this morning to try to find the little-known law that allows a player who is 2 yards offside to score a goal. But I couldn't.
I'm guessing the referee's assistant in the Chelsea v Newcastle game yesterday who blundered may find himself at a lower profile match next Saturday, ordered by his bosses to perhaps work on his concentration.
When Mikel Jon Obi 's shot bounced off Pizzaro with the score at 1-1, Solomon Kalou was clearly in an offside position, eight yards from the goal line. The ball bounced to him, he duly put the ball in the net and Newcastle's players waited in vain for the flag to go up. Thhe goal gave Chelsea victory.
Law 11 makes it clear that it doesn't matter that the ball just bounced off Pizzaro to Kalou. "Touches or is kicked by" is the carefully chosen phrase used by FIFA.
Maybe the linesman mistook Pizzaro for a Newcastle player in the crowded penalty area. After all Kalou was not offside when Obi's free kick was taken. Perhaps he thought the ball bounced off a black and white shirt, not a blue one. The ball is moving quickly and the penalty area was crowded.
But the lino should be the first to admit that he is there to get that kind of decision right.
1 comment:
Talking about this yesterday with a Football Leauge Assistant. The only thing we could think was that he thought it had took a clip of a defender.
However we could understand why Riley didnt go over to check.
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