Oct

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The ‘daylight’ rule needs to be put to bed

Filed Under Managers, Media, The FA

There’s no clear daylight between Freddie and the defender. Some you get, some you don’t, but it’s not offside.

Alan Curbishley

Let me just state for the record that I think that Ljungberg was marginally onside for the disallowed goal, but the decision wasn’t as clear as everyone seems to be saying. However, I have a problem with Curbishley’s comment here:

THERE IS NOT & HAS NEVER BEEN A ‘DAYLIGHT’ RULE. I’m not sure who started this; someone mentioned the FA were considering it, the media picked it up and it’s been repeated ad nauseam ever since. It was never implemented. The FA clarified this five years ago.

You’d think a football manager would make an effort to know the rules of the game he’s operating in, wouldn’t you?

Comments

6 Responses to “The ‘daylight’ rule needs to be put to bed”

  1. Andrew on October 1st, 2007 4:49 pm

    If there’s any part of the player (besides the arm) that is offside, the player is offside. End of story. That’s what the laws of the game say, and I don’t know why, even with TV replays these days constantly playing for review, pundits and managers still can’t tell if a player is offside. All this “He looks like he might be offside there” is a bunch of crap. Just look at it! It’s not subjective.

  2. Andy @ Liquid Football on October 1st, 2007 8:31 pm

    Good spot, so true. It started with Sparky’s verdict that Kalou was offised by a yard.

    It is incredible that managers at the absolute top flight of the game don’t take care to even understand the laws of the game.

    I think at one stage a lot of commentator’s were saying about a daylight rule, but you’d think that FIFA might release some sort of official documentation to all national FA’s, them in turn notifying managers etc… maybe they did who knows.

    I was about to make some comment about him getting on with old age, bad eyesight, etc… but he’s only 49!!! Am I the only one who thinks he should be in his 60s?

  3. Andrew on October 1st, 2007 10:54 pm

    The Kalou thing: It’s completely unacceptable for a player behind the ball to be called offside. That was just ridiculous, and even though I was happy to see Chelsea drop points, It still got on my tits.

  4. Betfair Kid on October 2nd, 2007 5:52 pm

    I understand what you mean about the ‘daylight’ thing, but is he definitely referring to some sort of rule or is it just a phrase?

    There definitely needs to be some sort of clarification on this topic. At the minimum, some sort of official documentation as Andy said above, though I hope video replays will be used sooner or later. Like with the Kalou goal, Mourinho was on the sideline and could see it was a goal on a TV.

    Off the topic, I’m a West Ham fan myself and was gutted when I saw the replay, but we didn’t really deserve a point out of the game.

  5. Leonard Hatred on October 3rd, 2007 8:52 pm

    As an aside, there’s no such thing as “onside”, either. You’re either offside or not. ;)

  6. The Beautiful Groan » Blog Archive » Groan’s rants : Analysts, Managers and Referees on February 29th, 2008 12:00 am

    [...] as Left Back correctly pointed out after the weekend, this phantom ‘daylight rule’ doesn’t exist. Never has. Yet [...]

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