according to the rule; the linesmen must decide within one or two second whether a player is actively involved in play with motion associable to the play by interfering with play (including touching and making a motion toward the ball) and deliberately taking advantage of the ball released
After a meeting in London, the International Football Association Board amended the offside rule in July last year in an attempt to clarify when a player is regarded as “actively involved in play”.
The rule states that a player in an offside position should be penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by a team-mate, he is “interfering with play, or interfering with an opponent, or gaining an advantage by being in that position”.
“When the situation developed the guy (Cissé) is clearly offside,” Hughes said. “He has made a movement towards the ball. All right, he has not touched it, but as soon as he makes a movement for the ball, as far as I’m concerned, he is interfering with play. The rule needs clarifying. It’s a grey area. It’s very difficult to understand all the interpretations.”
Benítez agreed. “The offside rule needs to change because the only thing it does is create problems for the referee,” the Spaniard said. “If the player is offside, he is offside. If you say this player is not offside because he didn’t touch the ball it’s still an advantage if he is offside. They tried to change things and in the end they have created a lot of problems for referees.”
