When I was a schoolboy I had a paper round to earn pocket money. The trouble
was that I loved reading newspapers. Often customers waiting for their morning paper would find me sheltering in their porch reading it before I pushed it through the letter box.
I read the feature writers of all the daily and Sunday papers and one who was very popular at the time was Hannan Swaffer. One of his re-arranged popular sayings has always stuck with me. 'Better late than never,' the old saying goes, to which he added, 'but better never late'.
This was something that, when I first became a linesman, as we were then called, I took as my guide or target. If there was a player in an offside position when the ball was kicked forward by a team mate, then up would go my flag. If I was late I could get a lot of stick from the crowd and black looks from the referee. Better late than never, but better never late.
Today it is all very different. Very often assistant referees will raise their flags to denote offside long after the ball is kicked forward. Not because they are slow but because the law now demands a different discipline. What has made the change is one phrase that has been added and one word that has been left out.
Prior to 1994 the law said that a player in an offside position should only be penalised if he was 'interfering with play or an opponent or seeking to gain an advantage' by being there. So the law has always decreed that if a player is in an offside position but, say on the right side of the field of play and the ball is crossed to the left, he should not be penalised. With the ball 50 yards away he couldn't be interfering with play or an opponent and could hardly be seeking to gain an advantage.
In 1994 the law makers wanted to clarify exactly what they meant and they added that the player had to be 'involved in active play'. This made it clear that a player who is well clear of the dropping zone, where the ball is likely to end up from the kick, should not be penalised, even though he was in an offside position. This has left assistant referees to delay raising the flag until they have seen the flight of the ball.
But for me the greatest difference has been made by taking out the words 'seeking to' and just leaving it as 'gaining advantage' by being in an offside position. Let me give you an example. A player takes a shot from the edge of the penalty area and the ball finishes up in the top left-hand corner of the goal. A colleague is standing on the right of the goal area in an offside position but not interfering with play or an opponent. Previously the goal would have been disallowed and the offside player penalised because he was seeking to gain an advantage by being there. 'If he wasn't seeking to gain advantage, what the hell was he doing there', as a football manager once said to me.
Now, as the law stands, because he had not gained an advantage by being there, he would not be penalised and the goal allowed to stand. However, if the goalkeeper saved the ball and it rebounded to the offside player he would be penalised, even though the last touch was from an opponent. He had gained an advantage by being in an offside position.
All this takes a little longer to materialise, and the assistant referee is likely to raise his flag long after the kick forward which to the uninitiated may look like a late decision. But to coin a phrase and Hannan Swaffer, better late than never, and sometimes better late.
Dick Sawdon Smith