you can see their point though

otherwise you are giving the green light for the last defender to dive off the pitch and pretend he is injured in order to catch people offside.

Van Nistelrooy has done nothing wrong - as far as he is concerned there is a defender "behind" him (Panucci is not receiving treatment so how is van Nistelrooy to know he is injured?) - so why should he be penalised?

I thought it looked a ludicrous decision in the heat of the moment but the more I think about it the more I think the officials are probably correct.

If Panucci was on the goal line "injured" he would still be playing van Nistelrooy offside so he is presumably still 'active', and as mentioned above you can't allow defenders to stop being active by just stepping off the pitch.

Posted By: mr carra, Jun 10, 09:04:24