Minnesota gets screwed on reffing decision

[Grizzly]

Goal initially gets called offside but ref overturns the decision because the Minnesota player "played" the ball. I think this is a grave misinterpretation of the rules that we have seen several times before.The player tries to kick the ball and misses and it deflects off his leg to one of three offside Fort Lauderdale players. To me that is still offside, for a defending player to negate an offside he needs to intentionally move the ball towards the offside players not have mishit it, have it deflect off of him or head it backwards mistakenly when he is trying to head it forward. At 5:30 of following video:

 

 

Here is the explanation from PRO which I do not agree with although FIFA probably needs to clarify its rule further: http://www.nasl.com/article/uuid/17kmnwmumnp6a1i12qeemdere6/professional-referee-organization-pro-clarifies-call-in-minnesota-fort-lauderdale-match#.VGApAx8zIqh

[BearcatSA]

I agree.  I hope this gets changed soon.

[shermanator]

NASL refereeing at its finest. Should we be surprised?

[Grizzly]

NASL refereeing at its finest. Should we be surprised?

 

To be fair although I think the ref should with common sense interpret the law differently, he did follow the literal interpretation of the law (the defender did attempt to play the ball) so I would place the blame more on FIFA for a rule that is poorly conceived and then made even worse by not being written and clarified properly.

 

I personally think we should go back to the original offside laws where offside is offside even in a passive situation. It was simpler and less open to debate, various interpretations and controversy and I think a very good argument can be made for any player being offside even in a passive way is still getting some sort of advantage for his team because the defenders and keeper still have to keep an eye on him as they may not be sure if he is actually offside and even if he is they have no guarantee that it will be called. However, even allowing the passive offside rule to stand in its current state, I do not understand why they are allowing offside to be negated when a defender makes a deliberate play. I think the main reason for having an offside rule is to avoid players having an unfair advantage by being in an offside position. In my opinion even if a defender makes a bad back pass to a teammate or the keeper if that pass is intercepted by a player who was in an offside position he has still gained an unfair advantage from being in the offside position. Even if we allow that rule to stand at the very least I think FIFA needs to clarify and restrict what deliberately playing the ball means to someone being in control of the ball who deliberately plays it. It is one thing to penalize someone for making a bad back pass but another to penalize someone for trying to head or kick a ball being shot at them that deflects off them in an unintended manner. With this interpretation of the rule, defenders are put in a bad situation of making a decision to not play a ball and let it go to a player who they hope will be called offside or to play the ball but risk having a misplay being called as a deliberate play of the ball that negates an offside. I would scrap this rule entirely but if it is going to remain I think at the very least control of the ball needs to be a prerequisite for a deliberate play.

[CDNFootballer]

NASL refereeing at its finest. Should we be surprised?

You could replace NASL with MLS or World Cup 2014 and sadly it would still work.

[An Observer]

From what I understand, he interpreted the rule correctly.  I remember everyone screamed on this board a few years back when an American defender misplayed the ball off his head and Hutchinson scored for Canada in the Gold Cup semi final.  We all brought out the rule book and Hart even stated that if a defender plays the ball no matter how poorly the opposing team cannot be offside.  Therefore, this was a bang on correct decision and no one got screwed.