Mind Boggling!

Can someone explain the 'new' offside rule to me, I must confess I can't get to grips with it at all, it's just bloody confusing. Oh for the good old days, when if you were offside, a free kick was given to the opposing team. Then some bright spark came up with the idea (allegedly to speed the game up), that if you weren't interfering with play you couldn't be offside. Next up was the ruling that if you were level, you couldn't be offside and if memory serves me correctly at this stage we also got rid of the rule that when the ball was played off a member of the opposing side, you were offside and not 'played on', but if a member of the opposing side played a deliberate back pass you 'were' played on.

Now of course they've come up with the idea that you cannot be offside unless you actually touch the ball and this is where the confusion comes in. Linesmen are sometimes still flagging for offsides and free kicks are being given when a player is in an offside position without him touching the ball. At other times they're not flagging even though players are clearly offside, maybe even in the penalty box, but in their opinion aren't interfering with play. As the late great Danny Blanchflower allegedly said, 'if they're not interfering with play, what are they on the pitch for'? I wholeheartedly agree with our Danny on this occasion.

Surely the old adage rings true once again, 'if it's not broken, then don't fix it'. I can see no benefit for the game in this new offside ruling, players look completely bemused when the flag goes up (forwards) or doesn't (defenders) and speaking as a fan, I just don't have a baldy. I suppose as it is a F.I.F.A. ruling we're stuck with it, but I don't like it just the same and I hanker for the good old days, but this is progress I'm told, progress isn't always a good thing would be my retort, but it'll only fall on deaf ears. I don't like it, so I'll just have to lump it I suppose!