Football Food For Thought / Feizal Rahman / 07 March 2010 /

Is the President of FIFA a vampire hell-bent on sucking the lifeblood from the beautiful game or do his plans to abolish the offside rule warrant serious consideration? Feizal Rahman reports.

It's hard to feel much sympathy for Sepp Blatter but when the FIFA president comes under fire for something he has yet to even propose, you wonder what chance he's got. Having reportedly discussed the offside rule with his field hockey counterpart, unloved Blatter is believed to be considering whether to abolish the law in football.

The general consensus within field hockey is that the game has benefited from dropping its offside rule, with an increase in entertaining games as teams adopt a more attacking mindset.

The response from some in the football world to the mere consideration of changing the offside law has been outrage, with Blatter painted as a vampire hell-bent on sucking the lifeblood from the beautiful game.

But because it's the suited Swiss, some dare not even acknowledge that this might actually be a good thing for the sport. There is growing demand for TV technology to be introduced into professional football - something FIFA has steadfastly resisted - but how much positive effect would this really have on the game? Contentious goal-line decisions are rare. There may have been an incident in Portsmouth's FA Cup win over Birmingham yesterday (Pompey now [11.5] to win the FA Cup) but can anyone remember the previous?

Offsides, on the contrary, affect every single game played from the World Cup final to the Workington Under 9s on a Sunday morning, but few actually seem to know the exact rules. Betfair's own Andy Gray often remark's in commentary how different interpretations of what constitutes 'interfering with play' or whether there is 'daylight' between defender and attacker seem to be made by individual referees on a random basis.

Most offsides are marginal decisions, with valid goalscoring opportunities denied to players who just happen to be illegally positioned by a matter of centimetres. How does the game benefit from assistant referees waving their flags - based often on incorrect judgement calls - and disrupting the momentum of a game? While the timing of the offside trap - and that of an attacker to beat it - is a skill in itself, the purpose of the game is defeated as a great phase of positive play is thwarted solely by a misplaced body part.

The main argument against removing offsides is that it would lead to 'goalhanging' and the blunt launching of the ball to a big frontman loitering in the box. But an attacker merely standing by the opposition goal is going to isolate himself from the rest of his team, in effect leaving them a man down. In any case, the obvious counter would be to employ a man-marker leaving such a game plan far less attractive.

There may be an instinct for defences to drop deep and line up along the box but this is no different to what the best teams already have to face now. The likes of Barcelona ([2.02] to win La Liga) and Arsenal ([3.9] to win Premier League) dominate possession in the middle and are forced to break down the opposition backline in and around the penalty area with their intricate passing game.

However, with defences unable to hold a solid line, the whole pitch becomes active, meaning there is more fluidity to passages of play and the technical ability of both attackers and defenders is rewarded far greater.

Those who play five-a-side football will know that the absence of the offside rule doesn't render games farcical, albeit with no passes over head height allowed. The emphasis is on technique, quick passing and movement - exactly the sort of football most enjoy watching the professionals play on an 11-a-side pitch.

If we can improve the game by changing certain rules that currently provide more negatives than positives then why not trial it? The purpose of FIFA is not only to protect the game but also to seek ways of making it better. Should Sepp Blatter eventually propose changes to the offside law then rather than be castigated, he should instead be applauded.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: