Following the Andy Gray and Richard Keys suggestion that women don't understand the offside rule, we decided to carry out a survey to see how many men are familiar with it. The results actually shocked us as they revealed that two in three men in the UK are unsure of the offside rule.
The poll of 1,000 men revealed that 65% of men were not clear on the rules as they didn’t know that you cannot be offside if you receive the ball directly from a goal kick.
As clearly stated in the Fifa 2010/2011 handbook; “There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from a goal kick”.
According to the survey, men in The South East of England were the most clueless, with 85% not fully understanding the offside rule.
Other regions with a poor knowledge of the offside rule were the North West and the South West, where 76% and 70% of men respectively, did not know what counts as an infringement.
In contrast, Scottish men are the most knowledgeable about football rules with 60% of men north of the border fully understanding what does and doesn’t constitute a breach.
I know a little about the offside rule however I was quite surprised that most men in the UK are not totally up to speed either. Looks like quite a few of us could learn a thing or two from Sian Massey!
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