Brentford vs Chelsea

[RustyRef]

Hey, I guess it’s subjective to a degree, but going back to the incident in question. The attacker who is offside clearly makes an attempt to play the ball. He misses it, but at that point he is offside for me and the call needs to be made. Especially as defenders, keeper etc….all adjust for that potential touch.

Interfering with play is very clearly defined as needing to play or touch the ball, as below from law.

  interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate

People aren't saying that you need to touch the ball to be penalised for offside, but it would be interfering with an opponent and that would only be penalised if his or her actions in attempting to play the ball affected an opponent's ability to play the ball. I'd say in this case that is subjective, and therefore not really something for VAR to get involved with.

 

[socal lurker]

I'd say in this case that is subjective, and therefore not really something for VAR to get involved with.

I’d go a bit farther and say that whether the attempt “impacts an opponent,” is always a subjective call. As a subjective call, the VAR can only recommend a review if the VAR concludes the call on the field was clearly and obviously wrong. I suspect the call here would have also gone without VaR intervention if the R had deemed it OS and wiped the goal.

 

[DJIC]

It does seem inconsistent with this interpretation of offside last year?

From 2.08
https://www.skysports.com/football/...ton-1-1-southampton-premier-league-highlights