What If There Was No Offside Rule in Soccer (Football)?

Can the game of football or soccer work without offside rule? And if so what would it look like? Would it be more exciting or dull?

By
Curious Matrix
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Soccer ball on the green field

Football (soccer) is the most popular sports game in the world. It has more than 3.5 billion fans around the globe. Interestingly enough, some parts of Earth call it football while others call it soccer.

Every country besides, the United States, Australia, Canada and Ireland, call the game football. Therefore, I will use word football from now on in this article.

As you probably know, football is a team sport played with a round ball on a rectangular field. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team (of course, what else could be the objective 😊). It is played by two teams of eleven players each. The average number of goals scored ranges from 2 to 3 depending on the tournament or league. For example, in English Premier league in five seasons between 2016-17 and 2020-21, there was an average of 2.74 goals scored per game.

History of Football & Soccer

Soccer stadium
Football field and fans

The history and evolution of football dates back over 2,000 years. FIFA’s “History of Football” chronicles documents that an early form of the game was played in China in the second and third centuries BC.

However, the first version of modern football with its rules was officially invented in England in the mid-19th century.

Per Footbalhistory.org:

An attempt to create proper rules for the game was done at a meeting in Cambridge in 1848, but a final solution to all questions of rules was not achieved. Another important event in the history of football came about in 1863 in London when the first Football association was formed in England. It was decided that carrying the ball with the hands wasn’t allowed. The meeting also resulted in a standardization of the size and weight of the ball. A consequence of the London meeting was that the game was divided into two codes: association football and rugby.

During the course of many years, rules constantly changed. Some were removed, some were added.

However, one rule that has always been under scrutiny and part of angry discussions in pubs is the rule of offside.

In that sense, and in accordance to the current 2022 FIFA World Cup event, it would be interesting to revisit history of offside rules and hypothesize on how would the game work without it.

Offside is a rule in soccer that is often misunderstood and controversial. It is designed to prevent players from gaining an unfair advantage by positioning themselves in front of the opposition’s defense.

When a player is in an offside position, they are not allowed to touch the ball or interfere with play. The rule is determined by the position of the player’s body relative to the last defender, the ball, and the goal line. If the player is closer to the goal line than the last defender and the ball, they are considered offside.

While the intention of the offside rule is to keep the game fair, it has led to confusion and frustration among players, coaches, and fans. Some argue that the rule is too complex and hard to enforce consistently, while others claim that it stifles attacking play and rewards defensive strategies.

One of the main criticisms of the offside rule is that it is difficult to interpret. The position of the player’s body can be difficult to determine, and the rule is open to interpretation by the referee. This has led to many controversial decisions, where a player is deemed offside despite appearing to be onside to the naked eye.

Another issue with the offside rule is that it can limit attacking play. If a player is in an offside position, they are not allowed to receive the ball, even if they are not interfering with play. This can prevent teams from creating scoring opportunities, as they have to be cautious about where they position their players.

Despite these criticisms, the offside rule remains an important part of soccer. It helps to maintain a balance between offense and defense, and ensures that teams cannot gain an unfair advantage by positioning players in front of the opposition’s defense.

History of Offside

Football grass soccer
Controversy about offside rule on every game

During early years of football, it became evident that the game has problems with so called “goal hanging players”. Namely, players would stand by the opposing team’s goal waiting for the right moment to score. This really looked weird in many moments as some players would only stand by the goal. Constantly.

The original offside rule was introduced in 1863 and required at least three opposing players (including the goalkeeper) to be in front of the attacking player. This included goalkeeper also. So basically, in reality this meant that if you were attacker, waiting for the ball to come to you, it was ok only if 2 players plus goal keeper are in front of you.

This was substantially modified in 1925 where player was considered offside unless two players of the opposing team are in front of him (including goalkeeper).

 It was further modified in 1990 such that the two opposing players have to be in front of or even with the attacking player.

This 1990 modification is the basis for the current offside rule. There have been interpretation changes (in fact, there regularly are “tweaks” to decisions). But the “core” aspect of “equal to or behind two opposing players” has been the same for over 30 years.

And with introduction of video assistant referee (VAR), the rule of offside received even more controversy. Mainly because sometimes, referees decides (based on VAR) that player is offside based literally on millimeters or micrometers.

Removing the Offside Rule

Soccer or football field from above
Can we remove the rule?

So now when I explained everything regarding offside and its history let’s finally see what would happen if we removed the rule completely.

History is a great teacher here as we already briefly explained what happened in history when there was no offside rule.

Explained in one sentence – players would stand by the goal constantly waiting to receive a ball and score a goal. That would look like pretty much dull and somehow static game.

Nonetheless, let’s explore more.

Offense would change completely but so would defense also. Namely, in a situation without offside many defender players would then also stay by the goal keeping the “cherry-picking” offensive players.

What about physical condition of players? Well, those scorers wouldn’t have to be in perfect physical and athletic condition as they could theoretically stand by the goal for whole 90 minutes. Their skills would need to be somehow different. They’d need to be able to deceive goalkeeper in some way.

Also, the game would be “developed” in such way that many players would be trained to kick perfect ball exactly to the legs (or head) of goal-hanging player.

And so, every training would look completely different. Many players would only practice those perfectly navigated ball kicks.

Theoretically all 10 players could constantly hang at the opposite goal waiting for their goal keeper to kick the ball.

That would not be very interesting game, now would it?

In conclusion, the offside rule is (and should be) a fundamental part of the game of football or soccer, and while it may be controversial and difficult to interpret sometimes, it is an essential part of the game that helps to ensure a fair and exciting contest. Whether you love it or hate it, the offside rule is here to stay, and it will continue to play a crucial role in this beautiful game.

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