The experiment was in the U-17 (I think) World Championships in Holland a couple of years ago. There were two main things that Fifa tested out in that tournament. One was automatically cautioning a player who touched the ball after a foul was awarded to the other team. Some silly things ensued, such as yellows handed out to players who simply assisted in getting the ball back to the spot of the foul. The other thing was to apply the letter of the text you cited. So consider an attacker in an offside position near the touchline 45 yards from goal. The ball is played through towards the corner. Everyone in the stadium knows this guy is ineligible, but the flag stays down. He makes a 40 yard run and touches the ball 5 yards from the corner flag. Flag goes up, and the ball had to be brought back to near midfield. This required attackers to make long unnecessary runs, and frustrated everybody. Honestly, if you have a player checking back for the ball from an offside position, the text you quoted makes sense. But if we're talking about a ball played in advance of an attacker any movement towards goal, without any similar move from an eligible teammate, is generally sufficient grounds for raising the flag. Elsewhere in this forum is a thread titled "question about when to raise flag" or something similar. It details possible collisions or confusion that arise from following the letter of the text we're discussing here. As it is, the quoted text states that dummying the ball is NOT active play, and should not be penalized.
Gary V posts: And FIFA Q&A has this: Quote: 8. A player in an offside position but not interfering with any opponent runs towards the ball played by a team-mate. Must the referee wait until he touches the ball to penalise him? Yes. The referee must wait and see if the player in an offside position finally interferes with play by touching the ball. Uh...remember that this is usually understood to apply to a relatively narrow set of circumstances, when two attackers, only one of whom was in an offside position, have a chance to play the ball. If only one attacker, from an offside position, is moving towards/playing the ball, you don't have to wait for an actual touch to call offside. See the USSF memorandum, and the IFAB circular. A quote from IFAB: A player in an offside position may be penalized before playing or touching the ball if, in the opinion of the referee, no other teammate in an onside position has the opportunity to play the ball.