WHEN I started ‘running the line’ early in my refereeing career, the instructions for offside were very different from today.

If a player was offside when a teammate played the ball forward, you raised your flag immediately, or got a rollicking from the referee at the end of the half.

Later on this was changed to 'Wait and See’.

One of the difficulties with offside, is that what counts is the moment the ball is last touched by an attacking player.

However, it only becomes an offence when the teammate, in an offside position, at that moment, interferes with play in some way.

That’s why it’s ‘Wait and See’, which can mean a considerable wait.

This is particularly difficult when a player is running forward from an onside position and may be behind the defender when he receives the ball.

Alternately a player may be in an offside position, but comes back to be onside when he receives the ball.

It doesn’t matter where he is when he interferes with play, but where he was when the ball was last played.

There can now be an added wait for those assistant referees where there is VAR.

If the assistant referee feels there is an offside but it is a very tight decision, he is not expected to flag unless a goal is scored.

The reason is if he flags and the referee blows his whistle before the ball goes in the goal, the referee cannot allow the goal, even if the VAR shows afterwards it was not offside.

If the assistant referee raises his flag after the goal is scored, the offside can then be checked by the VAR.

If it proves the player was offside, then the goal can be disallowed and the free-kick for offside awarded to the defending team. If the player was not offside, the goal would stand.

After years of raising the flag when the offside player interferes with play, it’s going to be difficult for assistant referees to keep it down in such situations.