da jogodeouro： [ad_pod ]
da luck： More than 24 hours removed from the north London derby, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal fans are still arguing.
This is perhaps nothing new but the tone of the argument pivots around one specific event at Wembley.
As Harry Kane rose to challenge for a header, Gunners defenders Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny wrestled with the England striker in the penalty area.
Kane hit the deck and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot.
However, the 25-year-old was offside when the ball into the area was played by Christian Eriksen and there has been much debate surrounding the officiating.
The law, per Sky Sports News, states: “If a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalised as it has occurred before the offside offence.”
The debate since has circled around whether or not Kane was challenging for the ball at the time he was fouled.
Former referee Dermot Gallagher, per the aforementioned Sky article, claims the decision was wrong because Kane was challenging for the ball by attempting to head it. Spurs fans maintain that, because he had not headed it, he was not yet active and thus the foul comes first.
This is the chicken and the egg argument all over again and it needs to change.
The offside rule right now is a mess. There are too many shades of grey and the referee’s decision, ultimately, hinges on his understanding of the word “challenging”.
The penalty, of course, was given and Kane scored. Tottenham subsequently earned a 1-1 draw in a game they had been losing.
Were the offside rule to remove the ability to argue such trivialities, perhaps it would not have been given.
A player, at the end of the day, is either offside or he isn’t. If the rule was changed to state that a team cannot be penalised for fouling a player in an offside position, all arguments would be solved.
There is also the idea that there should be clear daylight between the defender and the attacker because the current rule has been reduced to a nitpicking anality.
With the introduction of VAR to the Premier League next season, perhaps these arguments will stop. Or maybe the offside rule will become even more convoluted, as the action is slowed to within an inch of its life.
Changing the rule would be a great first step to removing these debates.