Basically the referee should call offside when a player passes the ball to another player who is closer to the opponent’s goal than any other opposing player at the time of the ball leaving the passing player’s foot.

Wgen iine

I dont no what offside is anymore they make it up as they go along

The idea behind that rule is that a striker should not just hang around in front of the goal.
That may lead to just long passes to the front, and not a nice gameplay overall.

Therefore the most front a striker can be, should be as far as the last defender. (not exactly the rule).

This could’ve been the rule, but it is just defined a little different: The most front a striker can be, is as far as the second last opponent (since there is usually a goalie).

Now, when mustn’t a striker stand there: Not never, but at the moment of a pass towards him.

As you are allowed to hang around without participating, sometimes you still have an influence on the game by interacting. For example you dodge a shot towards the goal. Now the goalie does not know, that you will dodge and has to consider both scenarios. In this case, even if you did not hit the ball, or even did not move for dodging, you have intereferred, and if you were offside, at the moment of the shot, it will be offside.

I guess that is most of it.

I’ve been watching and playing football for 45 years - but now have no idea what Offside is any more.

if the attacking player kicks a ball to their teammate, in the moment the ball is kicked, the pass receiving player has to have two enemy players being closer to the goal. in 99% of the cases it’s the goalkeeper and one enemy defender. but it doesn’t have to be like that

My wife’s interpretation of the rule: The player is offside if the linesman pits his flag up.

This is not always the case anymore.

At the time a pass is played any player who becomes active by attempting to play the ball or affecting the play (e.g. blocking the gk) must be behind the line level with the second last defending player which may or may not include the gk or can be behind the line of where the ball was played. It does not matter where the ball is played, it is purely on the position of the players at the time the ball is played.

Do you know basketball, OP? Imagine a player camping out under the basket while the play is taking place at the opposite end? He is hoping for a long pass so that he can score an uncontested basket. This is legal, because there is no offside rule in basketball.

The spirit of the offside rule in football is to preclude the possibility of similar behavior. The theory is, no camping out in unfairly advantageous territory.

However, the application of the rule is way more convoluted. And VAR has transformed it from the policing of unfair advantages to the forensic parsing of molecular structures.

In other words, I have no idea what offside means anymore.

I love the way all these explanations have made things even more unclear for OP

a player is offside if they are nearer to the opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last defender when the ball is played to them

And so, in summary, no one can explain the current offside rule. End of story.

🤣🤣🤣

As long as the ball is always traveling backwards a try can be awarded

What I would say is you should ask your boyfriend. I’m sure he’d enjoy explaining aspects of his hobby to you.

Basically a rule which means a player can’t just stand and wait by the opposition’s goal for an opportunity to score; if a player is actively involved in the progression of the ball down the pitch, they must always be behind one of two things:

a) The ball

b) The opposition’s second deepest lying player (the deepest lying player almost always being the goalkeeper, but doesn’t have to be)

It’s a bit more complex than that but this is the explanation that made me understand when I was first getting into football :)