London, Feb 14: English referees have been ordered to take a firmer line on players trying to flout recent Fifa guidelines on the offside law. The meeting was called following a number of controversial incidents in recent Premier League matches, particularly one between Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday.
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce instructed two of his players to stand several metres offside at attacking free kicks with the aim of distracting Leicester goalkeeper Ian Walker.
Although Bolton scored their equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw following a mistake by Walker, Allardyce called on Fifa after the match to scrap the guidelines issued last October with the aim of improving the game by allowing more attacking play.
Football Association (FA), Premier League and Football League representatives met yesterday and agreed to instruct referees that if they think the actions of a player in an offside position deceive or distract an opponent, that player must be given offside.
''It was generally felt that a decision needed to be taken on how to apply this interpretation to the type of situations we have seen during the past week, particularly in relation to attacking free kicks,'' the FA's head of refereeing John Baker told the ruling body's website.
''The laws of the game have not been changed, nor has the interpretation. We have simply sought to clarify the manner in which it should applied by referees,'' he added. Bureau Report