London Olympics 50p coin to elucidate football’s offside rule

London: The new 50 pence coins, which are a part of the Royal Mint collection will clarify football’s offside rule during the London Olympics.

The Royal Mint collection of coins intends to display each of the 29 Olympic and Paralympic sports that would be contested during the Games. London based journalist Neil Wolfson has designed the coin and with the help of a diagram it explains the basics of the offside rule. “I’m a sports journalist by trade and I saw this opportunity as a natural extension of what I do. This design itself is just a case of lateral thinking,” said Wolfson. Wolfson is hoping that people who usually find the offside rule tough to understand will find these coins useful. “I’m a football fan, I followed the Premier League since its inception and if I had 50 pence for every time someone had asked me to explain the offside rule I’d be a very rich man. When the coin is in circulation I hope people like it and I hope people are able to use it to explain the offside rule,” he added. Lord Coe, Chairman, London 2012 believes that the idea of designing coins for the Olympics is quite unique and will represent the cultural legacy of the Olympics for a long time. “Coins are a part of the fabric of our daily life, so to have a range of coins designed specifically to celebrate London 2012 is a huge honour, made all the more special by the fact that members of the public have designed them,” said Coe. "The 50 pence will be part of a long-lasting, wide-reaching cultural legacy that will benefit the entire nation and I’m looking forward to finding the first one in my change and collecting the entire range,” he added. ANI