Why Does Soccer Have Offsides?

When it comes to soccer, the offside rule can be one of the most confusing rules for the newcomers. The offside rule can also be confusing for the people who already know a lot about soccer too.

However, there is no doubt that the offside rule is one of the core soccer rules and it is one of the foundations of the soccer game.

I decided to write this article just to point out the importance of the offside rule in soccer and to briefly explain why soccer forces this rule during its professional matches.

Why was the offside rule introduced to soccer?

The main objective behind introducing the offside rule in soccer was to discourage the strikers of each team from staying close to their opponent’s net during the whole game just to wait for the ball and attempt to score a goal. The offside rule prevents many easy goals in soccer and makes the game more interesting in general.

So in simpler words, the offside rule forces the players to be more creative on the field and to not rely on just waiting for the ball to come towards them while they stand and do nothing.

In order to truly understand the importance of the offside rule and the reasons behind adopting it in soccer, you can try to imagine soccer without the offside rule and see what happens.

What would soccer be without offsides?

Without the offside rule, there are 2 main things that will drastically change in the way the players operate, and these 2 things are the following:

  • Forward players will hang around the opponent’s net the whole time
  • The defenders of each team will remain close to their team’s net to prevent the forward players of their opponent from scoring a goal.

So in simple words, without the offside rule, you’ll see clusters of players on each side of the field near the nets.

Instead of having the players evenly spread across the field to attempt to use strategy and tactics to score, you’ll see clusters of players near the goals attempting to either score a goal or block the goal from entering the net.

With that said, you can very easily tell how the absence of the offside rule will disrupt the flow of the game and will make it less entertaining.

Less players will be actively involved in the game because many players will just be waiting for the ball to reach them instead of actively seeking the ball and properly positioning themselves to receive it.

Why is soccer more entertaining with offsides?

We’ve talked about how the game would look without the offside rule, but it’s also a great idea to mention the list of benefits that the offside rule brings to the beautiful game.

Because of the soccer offside rule:

1- Forward players will have to position themselves in a smarter way on the field

Since the offside rule prevents players from receiving the ball from their teammates if there is no other player between them and the goal except the opponent’s goalkeeper, then these players will have to move away from their opponent’s goal and actively participate in the build up of a goal instead of doing nothing besides waiting for the ball to reach them.

In other words, the forward players, especially the strikers who are expected to score a lot of goals, are required to keep running on the field behind the defensive players of their opponent and move in a smart way on the field in order to make it easier for their teammates to send the ball towards them.

Also, the forward players will have to rely more on their agility skills and make surprising movements on the field in order to trick their opponent’s defense. These kinds of movements can bring some excitement and drama to the game.

2- Players will have to rely on their solo skills and their group skills.

Because of the offside soccer rule, we see a lot more dribbling and a lot more incredible solo skills from the players on the field. 

The reason behind this is that the offside rule makes it harder for a team to penetrate the opponent’s defense. 

The players will have to come up with clever ways in order to penetrate their opponent’s defense and score a goal instead of just throwing the ball to the player who’s the nearest to the opponent’s net.

Take dribbling as an example. Dribbling in soccer is one of the most entertaining skills to watch. Dribblers like Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard, Neymar and others have made soccer a lot more fun to watch.

And one of the main benefits of the offside rule is that it encourages players to dribble past their opponent’s defense instead of just kicking the ball to someone who is standing somewhere between the defense and the goal.

The offside rule also encourages teamwork in the center of the field. The players of each of the soccer teams will have to find a way to work together to penetrate their opponent’s defense and score a goal.

If the offside rule doesn’t exist, then all of the midfield soccer players have to do is to kick the ball towards their forward players the moment they have it.

However, with the offside rule in place, the midfield players and the other players on the field too will have to work together and keep passing the ball to each other until they find an opening and a chance to pass the ball to a forward player to put them in a good position to score.

This kind of group work makes the game more interesting to watch since soccer is a group sport and the teamwork between the players on the field is what gives soccer its meaning.

3- New interesting tactics have been used by soccer teams

A lot of tactics and tricks in soccer have only been possible due to the offside rule. One of these tricks is what’s known as the “Offside trap”.

The offside trap is basically a tactic that the defensive team uses in order to make the opponent commit an offside offense when they are attempting to score a goal.

For the offside trap to work, the defense players of the defending team need to all make sure that the offensive players of their opponents are in the offside area and that they can’t receive the ball from their teammates.

The offside traps require a huge team effort and coordination between the defenders of a soccer team because only one mistake can break the trap and let the opponent get a great scoring opportunity.

This kind of tactic adds more drama to the game and makes the game more interesting due to the group work required to pull it off.

So in other words, the offside rule has introduced some entertaining tactics to the game that can be used by the competing teams.

If you want to learn more about the offside trap and how it works, you can check my other article here that talks about the offside trap in detail.

What are the disadvantages of the offside rule in soccer?

It’s true that the offside rule makes the game much more exciting, however that doesn’t mean that the rule doesn’t have its disadvantages on the game.

One of the main disadvantages of the offside rule is that it is not always easy for the main referee and the assistant referees of the game to detect whether a player is standing in an offside area or not.

In other words, the offside rule is sometimes misused by the referees of the game. There have been a lot of well deserved goals that were canceled due to misjudgment from the referees of the game because of the offside rule.

Also, a lot of goals should have been canceled in some professional soccer games because the players involved were in an offside position but they weren’t canceled due to misjudgment by the referees.

However, this disadvantage is becoming less and less significant due to introducing the VAR technologies in soccer. The VAR is making it much easier for the referees to detect offsides and to prevent any misjudgments during the game.

Yet again, the VAR technology is relatively new and not all soccer leagues around the world are able to afford using it up until this date.

CONCLUSION

I would like to end this article by emphasizing that the reason soccer uses the offside rule is to make the game more entertaining in general and to make sure that all of the players on the field actively involve themselves in the game.

Without the offside rule, soccer would be less entertaining than it is today.