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The problem with this Kane offside debate isn’t the camera angle or whose footage is better or whether VAR is a good or a bad idea, it’s that the way we do offside at the moment is completely, self-defeatingly stupid.
We’ve lost the point of what offside is really there to do - stop goal-hanging, basically - and become nit-pickingly obsessed with microscopic, jobsworth, fussy detail. That’s why it’s controversial. Because it’s impossible and insane.
If you need a line superimposed afterwards to tell if someone was offside, they shouldn’t be offside. If even the slightest part of their body even looks like it’s still on, they shouldn’t be offside. If they’re not *clearly* and visibly offside, it shouldn’t be offside.
We’re asking assistant referees to make decisions they can’t physically make. We’re asking VAR to find answers to the wrong question. We think WAY too much about offside. It shouldn’t occupy as much of our focus (media, and fans) as it does. It’s become a total nonsense.
Quite a few people have mentioned the old “daylight” interpretation. I remember it, though whenever I mention it I’m sure people tell me it never existed. I don’t know why (or if) they abolished it. That sort of rule is better than the ridiculous bureaucratic mess we have now.
