I think this thread just goes to show how a) hard it is for a referee and b) how confusing parts of the offside law have become.
We have one who says A, one who says B and four say C
Might be easier if we could see a clip of it.
I don't necessarily agree that this highlights confusion in the offside law....I mean, don't get me wrong, the offside law is an absolute mess that makes no logical sense
I mean, we once had a ref on here who said that if the ball goes out then in, don't stop play if nobody is appealing. He was dead serious too. That doesn't mean the law on the ball in or out of play is confusing - he was just wrong. The only person who said A was
@Ciley Myrus , but he explained that was based on thinking that it would have been stopped well before - and he clarified by saying if it wasn't, then C.
And he'd be right that if the offside was called early that's the best case scenario - but maybe that wasn't an option here, who knows.
But surely offside is when the player becomes active ie by playing the ball.
The ball was played towards her but she could easily have left/ignored the ball which would make her not offside, something we are told to do. She is taken out before she has the opportunity to have left it or played it.
She's in the process of touching the ball - so, making the lunge.
Also, given she's doing this while between the defender and the ball, she's definitely interfering with the opponent. So if you have doubts about interfering with play, pick that one.
If she's lunging for a ball that a defender is near and having to challenge, then I'd argue that clearly meets the definition of interfering with an opponent. Thus, the offside occurred first.