The Offside Rule (Interfering with an Opponent) Explained TO Graham Poll

Originally Posted by irk

NOW he's interested. she likes men with a bit of meat on them I'm afraid.

oh, and young.

We had a similar own goal awarded in our favour (Rooney flagged offside originally) at Blues a couple of years back, and the Blues fans were fulminating, the slack-jawed @#%&!s.

That was a goal, this was a goal.

If Cisse did interfere with Evans it was in the build up to the goal, and it would have been a foul at that point, not offside later. He did nothing to hinder Evans at the moment that he deflected the ball, though admittedly he may well have been snorting with laughter.

Originally Posted by IanStoreyLess

We had a similar own goal awarded in our favour (Rooney flagged offside originally) at Blues a couple of years back, and the Blues fans were fulminating, the slack-jawed @#%&!s.

That was a goal, this was a goal.

If Cisse did interfere with Evans it was in the build up to the goal, and it would have been a foul at that point, not offside later. He did nothing to hinder Evans at the moment that he deflected the ball, though admittedly he may well have been snorting with laughter.

How can you say that given the diagram and directive provided by fifa, above? Cisse was blatently a distraction to Evans from an offside position, as the ball was played and during its flight ? Its exactly the same as in the fifa diagram ffs, couldn't be any clearer. If Cisse stood still and stopped his run then Evans wouldn't have been under any pressure and therefore wouldn't have whacked it into his own net.

Originally Posted by BarryX

If Cisse stood still and stopped his run then Evans wouldn't have been under any pressure and therefore wouldn't have whacked it into his own net.

Well I am all for a FIFA directive that obliges attacking players, when marked by Johnny Evans, to stand still, to avoid a situation where he will a) get dragged too deep b) get his body postion all wrong so that he's squared up and c) shin the ball into his own net.

Originally Posted by IanStoreyLess

We had a similar own goal awarded in our favour (Rooney flagged offside originally) at Blues a couple of years back, and the Blues fans were fulminating, the slack-jawed @#%&!s.

That was a goal, this was a goal.

If Cisse did interfere with Evans it was in the build up to the goal, and it would have been a foul at that point, not offside later. He did nothing to hinder Evans at the moment that he deflected the ball, though admittedly he may well have been snorting with laughter.

Absolute %@#$&!s. There's a reason Evans stumbles over.

Originally Posted by IanStoreyLess

Well I am all for a FIFA directive that obliges attacking players, when marked by Johnny Evans, to stand still, to avoid a situation where he will a) get dragged too deep b) get his body postion all wrong so that he's squared up and c) shin the ball into his own net.

They can do what they like, within reason, if they're stood onside. The @#%&! was off and interfering, end of. Apologies for the double reply

Cisse is clearly offside and interfering with play

Coloccini clearly handballed it - United penalty

He also clearly elbowed RvP in the back of the head

Cisse did Evra at the start

Valencia should have been sent off for two yellows right at the end

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

Cisse is clearly offside and interfering with play

Coloccini clearly handballed it - United penalty

He also clearly elbowed RvP in the back of the head

Cisse did Evra at the start

Valencia should have been sent off for two yellows right at the end

Most of the media only seemed bothered by one of these after the game. No prizes for guessing which - do not pass Go or collect £200

Originally Posted by BarryX

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was suitably riled following Graham Poll's article this week which states '....Ferguson is the best and most successful manager in Premier League history and yet does not know seem to know the laws of the game'. This was in reference to Cisse's goal which was disallowed, for offside, and then allowed again, on Boxing Day. Poll goes on to say that the referee got the call exactly right - something I couldn't quite get my head round. Whilst I am not an acclaimed ex-referee, writing for the world's most popular online newspaper, I am familiar with the term 'interfering with play' and felt, like many others, that Cisse was clearly interfering with Jonny Evans, from an obvious offside position, as the players tussled prior to, and during, the cross which resulted in an Evans own goal. More about that later. It was the sentence 'does not seem to know the laws of the game' that got to me most, so I thought I'd do a little research into them.

A quick search on google led to two very interesting results appearing on the first page. Firstly, Fifa's PDF explaining the offside rule, and, a bit further down the page, an article written by the one and the same, effervescent, Graham Poll entitled 'The offside rule explained for Alan Hansen, Mick McCarthy (and the rest of us)'.

I opened the article first, to see how Poll would explain (or rather interpret) the 'interfering with...' rules in layman's terms. After quoting FIFA's decree on the matter, Poll summarizes with the following statement:

"So, unless a player touches the ball he is not interfering with play. It’s that simple.."

This seemed to contradict the FIFA decree which was above his statement.







So, in summary, FIFA say that a player can indeed be ruled offside without touching the ball - exactly the opposite of what Poll is saying in a national newspaper.

Interfering with play and interfering with an opponent are two separate offences according to the laws of the game. Despite most people using the phrase 'interfering with play' to cover both, a referee would only use the phrase 'interfering with play' if the player touches the ball.

Poll isn't saying that a player can't be ruled offside without touching the ball, he's saying he can't be interfering with play without touching the ball. He can still be ruled offside if he interferes with an opponent or gains an advantage from being in that position (e.g. if the ball comes back off the post).

Originally Posted by eddie_red

Interfering with play and interfering with an opponent are two separate offences according to the laws of the game. Despite most people using the phrase 'interfering with play' to cover both, a referee would only use the phrase 'interfering with play' if the player touches the ball.

Poll isn't saying that a player can't be ruled offside without touching the ball, he's saying he can't be interfering with play without touching the ball. He can still be ruled offside if he interferes with an opponent or gains an advantage from being in that position (e.g. if the ball comes back off the post).

That's my problem, Eduardo, because it is exactly what poll says in the article quoted. He either fails to acknowledge the two seperate rules, or else deliberatly ignores the interfering with the opponent one. To say that Fergie doesn't understand the rules, or that the ref called it correctly on cisse, is a total failure to recognize fifa's directives in terms of interfering with an opppnent.

Funny to see a Martin Keown in the mail this morning, similarly criticising Graham Polls understanding of the offside law

Originally Posted by BarryX

Funny to see a Martin Keown in the mail this morning, similarly criticising Graham Polls understanding of the offside law

the lurking monkey-faced bastard has stolen your thunder barwick.

I'm literally seething here, and simultaneously wellin' up.

Originally Posted by irk

the lurking monkey-faced bastard has stolen your thunder barwick.

I'm literally seething here, and simultaneously wellin' up.

Martin Billpig Keown

I think it was a goal and the ref was right.

Originally Posted by carlosartorial

I think it was a goal and the ref was right.

go stick it on your blog, blogger.

Originally Posted by carlosartorial

I think it was a goal and the ref was right.

Immediately after the game I was thinking thank £#%&! he gave the goal or we'd never have heard the end of it. On account of it though, we're now going to have to see that photo of Fergie arguing with Dean at least 500 times over the next decade, no doubt used as evidence of the influence he wielded over officials and the FA. Like that £#%&!ing D'Urso picture, give it two months and it'll be taken as read that he used to do it every game and nobody else either had or would do similar.

Perhaps it would've been better if the lino had stuck to his guns and then come out afterwards and said the FA, the Queen and the Government's secret Manchester United Ministry had told him to do it.

TBH, I'd save your breath.

Whether you are right or wrong, the ABU mongs will believe what they wanna believe, led by the spackwits in the press.

Minor trivialities such as rules, facts & the truth don't & won't ever enter into it. It's football, so all rationality will go out of the window.

And you'll never get a top flight ref admitting he got a decision wrong.

Originally Posted by Fat Al

TBH, I'd save your breath.

Whether you are right or wrong, the ABU mongs will believe what they wanna believe, led by the spackwits in the press.

Minor trivialities such as rules, facts & the truth don't & won't ever enter into it. It's football, so all rationality will go out of the window.

And you'll never get a top flight ref admitting he got a decision wrong.

I will only stop when I got Poll to at least acknowledge the rule, or else get his newspaper to. Its a rule that needs explaining and clarifying to the British public, as it seems even the likes of Poll and Martin Keown don't seem to know it properly. It's shocking, it really is..

Originally Posted by BarryX

I will only stop when I got Poll to at least acknowledge the rule, or else get his newspaper to. Its a rule that needs explaining and clarifying to the British public, as it seems even the likes of Poll and Martin Keown don't seem to know it properly. It's shocking, it really is..

You wont get either, I'm afraid.

Now, if you were to try to get a foreign ref to comment on it, you might get some success. Someone not part of the club. Email Collina. Then, if you get him to agree, send it to a different paper.