Want to understand offside? Soccer's most confusing rule explained

It's the single most controversial rule in all of soccer. To this day, 163 years since the rule was invented and codified, no fan truly understands how offside works.

Despite its complicated nature, the offside rule is arguably the most important to enforce. Without it, soccer would just be a game of cherry picking and much less entertaining than it already is. Let's take a quick dive into the details of the regulation and how FIFA plans to administer it during this summer's World Cup.

What makes a player offside and how do referees call it?

The goal of soccer is to work together as a team -- 11 players on each side -- to get the ball into the opponent's goal. As the tactics of passing the ball around and attempting to navigate the defensive formation of the other team develops, finding an open man with the best opportunity to beat the goalkeeper is difficult yet necessary.

The attacking player who eventually makes that final touch to score a goal must not do so if they were past a certain threshold when the ball was delivered in order for the point to stand. That threshold is the second-to-last defender -- in the game of soccer the goalie is technically considered the last defender. This rule only applies to play occurring in the attacking half of the field and does not apply on set pieces, corner kicks or goal kicks.

If an attacking player scores a goal having not followed this rule, the sideline official -- who runs up and down tracking the ball and where the second-to-last defender is at all times -- will raise his flag straight up in the air. The on-field referee should see the flag and blow the play dead, therefore disallowing a goal if one was scored. It should be said it's not against the rules to simply stand in an offside position or go offside once the ball is played -- as long as when the ball was played the attacker receiving the ball was onside.

Referees can also halt play before a goal is scored if the offside is clear and obvious to the sideline official but recent guidance from FIFA encourages officials to allow play to continue until a natural stoppage -- whether a ball goes out of bounds, there's a foul or a goal is scored -- in order to avoid calling offside prematurely or incorrectly. Referees have the benefit of Video Assistant Referee and semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), additional sources of controversy, to provide clarity on tight decisions.

Because of the advancement in technology in this field, referees are now able to make offside determinations by examining the position of players down to extremely minute detail. Technically, if a part of a player's body that is not permitted to be used to play the ball (hand or arm) is offside but the rest of the body is not, then offside should not be called. However, that specification isn't necessarily followed and SAOT has declared players to be offside for a sliver of any body part being past the second-to-last defender.

How will offside be policed at the 2026 World Cup?

FIFA is going to largely follow the same process described above to enforce offside at the 2026 World Cup in North America. However, there is one significant change that will debut during the tournament.

Remember how recent guidance from FIFA encouraged officials to delay raising the offside flag in order to let play continue until a stoppage? That has essentially been reversed as advanced SAOT will give an audio alert to sideline officials when an individual player is determined to be offside by at least 10 centimeters. That being said, the official still has discretion over when he actually lifts his flag to make the call.

The new technology is meant to prevent unnecessary injuries during play that legally shouldn't occur when an infraction is noticed. There are limitations, however. The new tech cannot make offside determinations when mulitiple players are grouped together.

Hopefully, the addition of this innovation will speed up officiating and ensure the correct decision is made without controversy or serious impact to player health or the result of a match. Of course, there are bound to be hiccups. As long as they are limited, fans shouldn't have as much to complain about during the quadrennial tournament.

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