- Jun 22, 2005
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That's all well and good... But we saw yesterday that whilst offside or not might, at one level be a factual decision, the position of the lines drawn and the exact frame to use is entirely subjective and is in fact (worryingly) subject to manipulation.Not for offside
And I quote
the "clear and obvious error" consideration within VAR will only be used for subjective decisions -- penalties, fouls, possible red cards. They are decisions which are open to interpretation, and they are also the calls that the VAR can ask the match referee to look at again on his pitchside monitor.
But offside is different. You are offside or you are not. It's a factual decision based on the position of, usually, two players on the pitch. The same goes for the ball going out of play, it is objective and will never be judged on being "a clear and obvious error."
Why use that exact frame? Why not the previous one? When does a player 'play' the ball? When he first touches it or when it leaves his foot(/head etc)? Which part of the body is used to judge whether a player is in an offside position or not? Where precisely does the arm end and the shoulder begin (if that is to be the position on the body that is/can be used) ? Then if you can objectively decide where the shoulder is, can the position of the shoulder be objectively decided when a player is wearing a non-skin tight shirt on an image that is not particularly well defined?
Much too much grey area here to be stating that it can be stated objectively certain in cases such as this.