When new laws do not come into effect (apparently)

[Peter Grove]

It looks as though maybe the officials in the Euro 2016 are not fully following the new laws. Did anyone else notice the offside incident in the France vs Romania game at the beginning of the second half? To me it looked like Giroud came back from an offside position in the opponents' half to challenge for the ball in his own half. So under the new provisions of Law 11, the free kick should have been where he became active, which (unless there was something that I missed) was about 5 yards into the French half of the field. However the AR indicated the position of the free kick where Giroud apparently was when the ball was last touched by a team mate, about 5 yards inside the Romanian half.

Another point that struck me (and which has been discussed on here before) is the question of mechanics. If the AR had decided to give the kick inside the French half, how should he have indicated it? Should he have run the approximately 10 yards' distance from where he was, all the way into the opposite half to show the correct position for the free kick, or what?

 

[RustyRef]

At that level it won't really matter as most teams will look to put the ball down and play quickly.

You are right though, the free kick was taken from the wrong place.

 

[Darius]

Perhaps the directive (and solution) is that assistant flags from the 'old' position and it's the referees job to spot the ball from correct place if it's in the other half.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Maybe they use the same windscreen wiper signal as at present to indicate he's come back from an offside position and the referee decides the position of the restart

 

[RustyRef]

It happened in the Wales game as well. The assistant flagged where the player was originally stood when the ball was played and the referee pointed at where it should be taken - i.e. where he received it in his own half.

 

[Peter Grove]

Perhaps the directive (and solution) is that assistant flags from the 'old' position and it's the referees job to spot the ball from correct place if it's in the other half.

Maybe they use the same windscreen wiper signal as at present to indicate he's come back from an offside position and the referee decides the position of the restart

And therein lies the problem (for me) - maybe it's this, perhaps it's that - were all having to try and guess at what the proper procedure for this is supposed to be. As far as I'm concerned the IFAB Technical Committee should have included a clear procedure in the new edition of the Laws for what is a fairly significant change in how an offside offence is handled by the match officials.