A doctor in Spain has offered football referees the perfect excuse for dodgy offsides - their eyes are not up to it. Dr Francisco Belda Maruenda says the human eye is physiologically unable to process all the information needed to apply the offside rule correctly. To do so, a referee must be able to keep at least five moving objects in his visual field at the same time, he writes in the British Medical Journal. The specialist in family medicine said referees needed technological back-up.
The offside rule states that at least two opposition players must be between the goal and the attacking player, or at least level with the player, when the ball is passed. This means the referee, or the referee's assistant, must be able to keep two players of the attacking team, two players of the defending team and the ball in their visual field in order to make a fully informed offside decision, Dr Maruenda argues.
Dr Maruenda, who is based in Murcia, Spain, said this was beyond the capacity of the human eye.
The relative position of four players and the ball cannot be assessed simultaneously by a referee, and unavoidable errors will be made in the attempt, he said. He said the only way to limit errors was to use modern technology during games, such as freeze-frame television and frame-by-frame analysis.
