I don't know if anybody saw this in the Bulgaria - Italy game in Euro2004. During an Italian attack a Bulgarian defender made a pretty lame dive to win a foul and then started to role around in agony. Fortunately, seeing as there had been no contact whatsover, both the referee and the AR chose to totally ignore him and play continued. Italy got the ball back and played it forward to two strikers who would have been offside if it wasn't for our hero still rolling around in agony five yards from the goaline but the AR flagged for offside. Was this right? I thought that the AR may have just been signalling for the game to be stopped but if I remeber rightly the game was restarted with a Bulgaria FK where the Italian 'offside' had been.
the AR made a mistake. The Offside law makes no reference to the playing capacity of the defenders. He can be laying there unconscious and still be playing the attacker's on.
I didn't see the play, and it sounds like you had to be there. Wouldn't a sporting team play the ball out of play with a player down?
You're drawing 1-1 in a major championship in a game you need to win to have a chance to stay in it. The opposing team is diving, fouling and wasting time at every opportunity. There is about 10 mins left. No