Oh no - the flag's up!

Do you understand the offside rule? It seems that most people - even most football supporters - don't. And yet the basic principle is very simple and straightforward. If you are ahead of the ball when it is played, there must be at least two members of the opposing team between you and their goal - or at the least you must be level with the most forward of them. No problem, eh? Well if they had left it at that, there wouldn't have been, but they had to complicate the issue by introducing the concept of "active" and "passive" players. Take the Arsenal/Chelsea match last Sunday. Arsenal felt badly done by when a van Persie shot beat the goalkeeper all ends up, but the goal was disallowed for offside - not against van Persie, but against Henry. Arsenal argued that Henry was not involved in the play and should therefore have been designated a passive player, and the fact that he was several light-years offside should therefore have been ignored. My opinion? Get back to the basic rule. These are highly-paid professional players who know the rules, and presumably are in control of their feet and can count up to two. Why should any allowances be made? - if they get themselves into an offside position, they should take the consequences. Let's do away with these unnecessary complications. Do you remember Brian Clough's comment when an earlier test used to be whether a player in an offside position was interfering with play or not - "If they're not interfering with play, what the **** are they doing on the pitch?".