FIFA released the video the VAR used. It actually is the most clear evidence of it being in bounds, and makes sense when you see it. Japan’s second goal in their 2-1 win over Spain was checked by VAR to determine if the ball had gone out of play. The video match officials used the goal line camera images to check if the ball was still partially on the line or not. pic.twitter.com/RhN8meei6Q— FIFA (@FIFAcom) December 2, 2022
Technical question on this play. Law 11 says that any defender off the field is considered on the lone for the purposes of offside. I assume the same applies for an attacker? As was pointed out the sliding Japanese attacker's feet are beyond the ball when its played but if he's considered on the line he's really even with the ball. Regardless he didn't play the ball, so it would only matter if the ref thought he was involved with the play.
It does not. That's why attackers who cut the ball back to the center of the penalty area after a run often intentionally leave the field of play.
Wow - thank you. Jason, sorry. I could have sworn we had this come up in a game in the last few years (City maybe) where numerous players were in the goal at the time the goal was scored.
I was going to pass this post by, because the actual answer to the actual question is really straightforward and @BlueNosedRef nails it. But all this invites a different, more technical question. Where is "on the line?" Now that we have millimeter offside decisions and a goal line that is 5cm wide... if "on the line" means at the extreme outer boundary, then we can have a situation where the ball was fully touching the line--let's say, 4cm onto it--but a player could still be in an offside position. If it means the inner perimeter, then once the ball is touching the line, no one can possibly be offside. I assume it's the outer extreme. But I know of no instruction that makes that clear.
It's been a while...It's quite right to dissect the ref team's mechanics in agonizing detail in this folder. It's what it's here for. But I think it's worth noting that VAR did exactly what VAR is here for. Make sure that Japan's extraordinary effort on the field for an utterly critical goal was not negated by a misjudged technical call. The CR and AR would have to be astonishing incompetent to be in correct position to make the call. It's ingrained to be decisive, and it's a whole lot easier to look decisive calling it out, rather than suggesting doubt by letting play go on. Live soccer won't benefit, but consider tennis - FIFA could promote multiple line judges if it so chose.
Does it matter? Once the ball is touching the line, nobody can be closer to the goal line than the ball (which is a requirement of being in an offside position). Or am I just in a brain fog this morning?
Find all images with Soccer ball pic.twitter.com/916xEZ2Dgx— Chris Kessell (@THEChrisKessell) December 2, 2022
I guess the fundamental question is "what's the goal line?" Is it the outer boundary or the inner the boundary? I think for the entire history of the game, we'd say it doesn't matter and just default to the inner boundary. But with VAR and the ability/requirement to parse this to the millimeter, it theoretically does matter. You could have a case with the ball touching the goal line (on the inner side of the line) and an attacker standing in the goal in an OSP. If that attacker interferes with his opponent as a teammate kicks the ball into the net... it's technically offside. Unless, of course, it isn't.
I agree, this wording of the offside law is sloppily written from a time when it was almost totally irrelevant. There are definitely some edge cases that aren't entirely clear or agreed-upon. Some wording that word work is "a player is in an offside position if they are closer to the outside edge of the opponent's goal line than [...]" and "any part of the ball or the body of any player, who has not left the field of play with the referee's permission, that is outside of the field of play is considered to be located on the outside edge of the nearest boundary line for the purposes of offside." Hire me, IFAB.
I don’t get it. https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/japan-v-spain-var-check-goal-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022
As I understand it, by "goal line technology" they don't mean what we probably think of, but they mean "the camera they had installed on the goal line for making these kind of decisions." I think maybe couching it in terms of GLT is designed to make it sound a touch more complex then "a really good camera angle." Interesting question for me on this though--does their use of "GLT" imply that the broadcast feed doesn't have those cameras? I think that is what they might mean.
I tend to agree with you and @code1390. Which is yet another reminder that, by and large, we here know more about what we are talking about than things like official FIFA communications channels. If this is a mistake, it's an embarrassing mistake. But global media will run with it because it has FIFA's imprimatur. And it wrongly sends the signal that GLT can be used for these sort of decisions.