This is a plea for more linesmen and for more understanding for the referee.
It's annoying, isn't it?
Between the moment when an offside footballer accepts the ball and the assistant referee raises the flag, the viewer can now confidently answer a few WhatsApp messages, read the entire stadium newspaper or get another beer.
If he hurries, he can even do everything at the same time.
Sometimes there is even enough time to take a quick look at the best at home.
Is there anything worse than those late decision makers out on the line? Of course: when there are no assistants at all. Because then the referees alone have to decide whether a player is offside. Is that possible? "Of course not", several referees confirmed to me in unison. How then? The referee should observe whether the player "still gets on his socks" when the ball is released (original quote) and at the same time see whether a striker has started 30 meters away in front of or behind the defender. "We used to have a referee who actually did it," says Wolfgang Krzizok, EA colleague and referee in passive mode, "but only because he was so incredibly cross-eyed".
Otherwise, most offside decisions on Erdings football pitches are purely a matter of luck - or, as referee Knut Friedrich puts it, “a question of experience, cleverness or tactics”. He has colleagues “who only whistle when it's crystal clear. Younger people, on the other hand, react immediately if someone screams ”. The most common practice is, in case of doubt - and we are not talking about a calibrated line, but rather a fairly generous range - to decide on the sidelines.
It's not nice for the strikers, but it's very human. Friedrich: “Afterwards nobody discusses a situation that has been whistled - in contrast to a supposed offside goal.” His advice: You just have to develop a feeling to take into account the mood on the pitch and the reactions of the players, says the man who already did has directed over 1000 games on the courts in the district.
Mood, feeling - are these the right parameters for a decision on a rule interpretation? We will have to continue to live with it, because in the future there will be referee teams at the earliest from the district league. And we're only talking about the men's leagues. In youth football (only from the regional league) and women's football (Bayernliga), assistants are practically non-existent. It doesn't get any better, on the contrary, because the Erding referee group is getting smaller and smaller. During the corona pandemic there were - apart from a BFV online offer that three men took advantage of - no ski courses. Quite a few older colleagues have stopped. “If some colleagues didn't whistle twice on the weekend, we would no longer be able to occupy the C-Class,” says Friedrich.
So: Let's treat the referees with respect and turn a blind eye to some really adventurous offside decisions and remember: Multitasking is slightly easier for the spectator (drinking beer and watching football) than for the referee (observing two points at the same time and then also be at the ball level). And we haven't even mentioned that a referee should decide something from one perspective - namely from a frontal view - that actually only works from the side.
Wouldn't the volunteer people at your side be a help? In other words, those people who are given the flag before the game. By no means, says Friedrich, he is already happy when these become noticeable, when the ball rolls over the sideline, linesmen in the best sense of the word. But it is not uncommon for this line judge to suddenly sit with the spectators, "or the flag is just lying on the ground - I can't expect someone to be offside," says Friedrich.
What remains is the radical solution: Abolish offside!
“Then you have the fat center forward waiting in front of the goal.
No, that would change the game too much, ”says Friedrich.
He is right.
Then it's better to hang around like before.
In other respects, the chairman would be much more radical.
"I would punish every touch of the ball with my hand - whether shot, accidentally or otherwise." But that is a completely different story.
DIETER PRIGLMEIR
