There needs to be a contingency in the methods of measuring for offside… a tolerance of sorts to be implemented…
If a shaft is machined in a lathe for example, there will be a plus or minus tolerance as guideline…
The offside problems stem when players are in exact alignment… It then becomes impossible to separate TWO overlapping parallel lines… Why not just announce ‘a tolerance’ of 100mm (4") to work in favour of the attacking team… This will eliminate the need for exact alignment… any lines that overlap within this 100mm (4") ‘no mans land’ channel… to be awarded to the attacking team.
At the moment we have a sports body, with ‘shoddy’ officials playing joystick avatar trying to adjudge a thousandth of an inch to award the correct decisions…
Absolute farce today in the MLS playoffs. Orlando and City’s NY team went to pens, and the Orlando keeper saved the last one to win the game. But they then used VAR to determine he came off his line too early and determined it had to be retaken. I didnt think they could use VAR for that, but maybe thats specifically a prem issue. However, even worse, the keeper got a yellow card for it, his second, and so was sent off. In a fucking shoot out for a trivial and marginal offense. They then wouldnt let us bring in the sub keeper so one of the regular players put on the gloves and saved his second pen winning the game 
Its a fair point under VAR the situation of been level has now disappeared its either onside or offside which has in recent weeks ruled out the Mane and Bamford goals which at worst were level.
Difficult to measure two parallel lines virtually on top of each other… allow a gap, any gap, 50mm, 100mm, 150mm… it becomes far easier to measure between any two lines… then just check it is within the tolerance allowed… and hey presto… a decision within seconds
LiVARpool will still be the cry of the idiot.
Villa one was spot on in my view and it’s where it works well.
He reaches for the ball gets it and then gets the man, it’s not a penalty, not sure why people are questioning that?
Sure the talking dickheads on MOTD will say it was but it’s a OTT dive to a thing that wasn’t a penalty.
But the offside to be measured from the nearest foot to the goal nothing else then its easy
Any alternative to what we are having to put up with at the moment is good in my book… but each alternative may well have their own flaws… Your proposal has its merits, BUT If attacker and defender are on opposite sides of the pitch when the ball is passed forward (ie, not in-line with the goal)… your proposal would have to be measured to the by-line and not the between the posts goal-line… that could work… Providing the by-line is parallel to the centre line… Otherwise centre-line measurement to the opposite corner flags will differ… It can be safely said… even the best groundsman in the world ain’t good enough to mark out a pitch to a square and perpendicular accuracy demanded by the VAR… That is why i proposed a tolerance of 50mm, 100mm for eg… so a gap can be measured between two parallel lines drawn between the players… AND ALSO parallel to either the centre-line or parallel to the by-line, as decided pre-match kick off ruling… 
Why be so complicated just leave the laws alone, it us the tinkering which is cocking everything up. Just simplify, because how would you know, 51mm from 50mm, there us always going to be controversary. What pisses me off us the use if the shirt sleeve as per Mane v Everton, football is played with the feet so use them and if you are offside then you are offside
Unfortunately VAR is here to stay.
Someone has to come up with a solution of how best to work it… Good point of using feet only as the baseline be it judged by VAR, linesman or referee…
The BIG problem at the moment is… How do we get the numpties that run the game to listen…!!
The numpties problem for me and always has been is that they dont play the game so dont understand the nuances the dark arts etc. So we will be forever be doubting them. Although I prefer the game without VAR at least mistakes happened because of the speed of the game, now it is slowed down and they see every angle and still fuck it up.
Nothing to complain about is there
Are we still LiVARpool???
Never thought computers would manage to take football, among everything else that is ruined by data, but THEY HAVE!
Admittedly I am well pissed-auf after that but the game is gone, its on the slide. Enter an independent conglomeration of clubs forming their own private league. Funny that Eh?
Its probably all been planned for the $$$$$$
Won’t VAR be in that as well? Not sure how it’s got worse but it has.
I’m still for some of it but it needs to be simplified as for faffing around with lines for 10 mins if you have to do that then it’s not clear and obvious and probably should be the main focus for all decisions using it.
If you can’t judge it without the naked eye then leave it.
The “clear and obvious” standard is not applied to offsides. The focus is on avoiding second guessing subjective decisions, but instead giving objective support to decisions. As such, it treats subjective and objective decisions separately. So, if we pretend that offside is black and white, then the standard is only whether it can be demonstrated that the player was offside, not whether it is obviously so.
With subjective decisions, they don’t want another person second guessing the subjective decisions of the ref so the clear and obvious standard was created. However, even this is a little lost in translation, because really what it focuses on are the isolated objective elements of the overall elements that went into a subjective decision. That allows room for it to overturn fairly trivial cases if the basis for the ref’s decision was shown to be wrong or incomplete. In a case like this, the discussion was probably around whether the ref saw that Robbo made contact with Welbeck’s foot. As soon as he says no, when the picture shows he clearly did then that creates an objective discrepancy that falls into the bucket that VAR has license to overturn.
I get what they’re trying to do, but it is seems like the sort of protocol that seems good on paper and results in shitty application once it starts to be used.
I know it’s not but maybe it should.
I think I would have an issue with it calling ones that are so close that you cannot see it with the naked eye even if the tech was precise enough to call them correctly. However, that is a debate to be had once they develop sufficiently precise tech. Without that they’re just making educated guesses on these imperceptibly close ones and backing it up by pretending the tech gives a definitive answer.
Well quite, I don’t think it helps itself by missing things it should be coming in on. It is here to stay but it needs massive improvement especially on offsides.
The rest would be helped by a mic to be honest, though I think the lack of crowds is not helping this.
I’ve watched rugby since the semi pro days and to see how quickly and easily they implemented video technology and how little controversy there is around it now shows just how bad the football version is.
Firstly, on field officials are encouraged to still make a decision if they can. They then use the video ref to confirm or overturn decisions. Where a ref can’t make a decision, both the on field and video ref review the same footage, discuss and make a collective decision.
If a ref misses something crucial or a serious offence during play, the video ref raises that with him. It’s a way of having another set of eyes on the game.
On the issue of offside, there’s no science or stupid lines. The officials get to see all angles and they make a decision on that. Millimetre decisions could go either way but no one moans because no one can be certain to that degree.
All of this is played out with the officials mic’d up so TV audiences know what is going on and video screens the fans can see in the stadium.
The whole thing is pretty much controversy free. This is in part because the use of video officials is seen as a way to help the ref, rather than an attempt to get decisions millimetre perfect.
The authority remains with the on field official. Fans and TV viewers know what is going on. It works with relatively little controversy and everyone is okay that they aren’t in pursuit of perfection at the expense of the joy of the game or minutes spent standing around.
A relatively new professional sport with far less resources have got this sussed far better than the richest league in the biggest sport in the world. Also been working well for years so they haven’t tinkered with it every few months and making it more confusing.
God forbid football learn from another sport.