Offside rule for women...

Football is a lot like politics. The offside rule used to be a simple rule but to make it more playable it has changed. Not the basic rule has changed. No! A lot more extra rules have been added. Same as in politics. There is a basic rule and then 100 different rules based upon that rule to make life more playable. Meanwhile... women tend not to understand anymore if they ever did. *wink*

Some more women in politics would be better. Get rid of all those extra rules. And basically that is true. There is a drug trafficking problem because drug trafficking is illegal. Make it legal and no problem! Same with the offside rule. In the past ppl have spoken out to scratch that rule and change football entirely.

Anyway here is in my own words the offside rule for as far as I know it.

First some explanation on the situation: I am telling this a team is playing towards a goal. So basically "in front of" means "closer to the goal". Closer is measured by a line parallel to the back line. So actually it means closer to the back line. So if a player at the corner flag in the left of the field is like 1 yard away from the back line and on the right side of the field a player is 2 yards away from the back line the player near the corner flag will still be in front of him (while physically he is way at the side of him).

Knowing this, here we go:

- An attacking player is considered offside when the ball is played towards him by a player of the same attacking team and on the moment the ball is passed from that player towards him there should be no less then 2 players (goalie included) in front of him. (So there should be a defender "in front" of him OR exactly beside him)
- (It used to be so that no player at all was allowed to be offside, however in 1994 (or 1998) it was changed so that only the player for whom the ball was intended for should not be offside, any other player is allowed to be offside, but they should not benefit from the situation so they should go out of offside position first before they can take part in the game again)
- This does not count when the player receiving the ball is standing on his own half of the field at the moment the ball is played.
- Also a defender can not, during an uninterrupted play (no whistle blown), step over the back line and be considered out of play. Meaning while a defender steps behind his own back line he is considered part of the game and one of the 2 players needed to cancel the offside.

Note:
- An attacker is not offside when he is in offside position but receives the ball from a defender.
- Played in the "general direction of a player" has kinda changed since 1994 (or 1998). If the ball is played in the direction of a player and he is close to an other player you could argue the ball is played in the general direction of both players. If one is at that moment offside and the other is not, it has been sort of a rule that no offside is given on moment of passing the ball. The moment a player receives (touches) the ball the judgment is made: was this the player in offside position on the moment the pass was made, or was it the other one. If it was the offside player, offside is given, else it is not given.

Hope it was a bit clear for you galls out there ;)