As far as I can see, the rules don't actually say anything about this situation

first - the actual offside rule itself:

"A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent"

then rule 11.4 - says if you step off the pitch deliberately to make someone offside, you get booked (and the player is still onside).
No-one's suggesting Panucci did that, and he wasn't booked.

But just because 11.4 wasn't broken, doesn't mean RVN was offside.

What we want to know is - if a player goes *accidentally* behind the line - as in this case - are they still active, and therefore can play someone onside? I can't see any rule that says either they are or they aren't.

Posted By: Tricky Hawes, Jun 10, 12:43:37