Association football: offside law amendment passed – archive, 1925

The Guardian

13-06-2025

15 June 1925
Paris, SaturdayAt the annual meeting of the International Board, held at the offices of the French Association Federation here this morning under the presidency of Mr White (Scotland), two important decisions modifying the laws of the game were adopted.
The first altered the offside rule so that a player shall not be offside if two instead of three opposing players are between him and the opposing goalline.
The second decision was that a player throwing in from touch must stand outside the line instead of with his feet thereon.
The delegates present were: – Messrs McKenna, Pickford, and Wall (for England); Messrs White, Campbell, and McConnell (for Scotland); Messrs. Thomas, Nicholls, and Robbins (for Wales); Messrs. Bride, Small, and Watson (for Ireland); and M Delaunay (for France).
15 June 1925
There is a small item in the weekend news which, for all its seeming insignificance, will be read with a deep and understanding interest by the bulk of the male population of this country. Nothing that a mere parliament or a League of Nations is likely to do will come home to the masses who follow professional League football, or even to the average schoolboy, so much as the news that the International Board has adopted the alteration of the offside rule.
At present an Association player is offside who on receiving or being about to receive the ball has not three of the opposing players (as a rule the goalkeeper and the two full backs) between him and the goal. Many are the games which, viewed as a spectacle, are spoilt by the rigid application of the rule. Many are the occasions on which a side, having secured the lead or in order to make a draw, play the 'one-back game,' the second full back insidiously moving down the field and leaving one or more of the opposing forwards in an offside position and destined to be penalised by the referee if the ball is sent to any one of them.
There is nothing in professional football except perhaps the application of the rule about foul play, which, checks the free run of the game so much as 'offside,' and it is probably this, rather than the deliberate use of the device as a piece of tactics, that has led the authorities to make a change.
In future a man will only be offside if he has not two players – one in addition to the goalkeeper – between him and the goal. Under these circumstances the point of the 'one-back game' will be lost; a 'no-back game' would be too risky, because if the referee refused to grant 'offside' the goal would almost certainly be captured; and there will be far fewer interruptions of the play. 'Offside' has always been to the League crowd an occasion of the most violent controversy, but on a tree so rich one branch will not be missed.