So, Wirtz looks offside. Everyone in the ground, everyone on the sofa, everyone watching the replay goes: “Yep, that’s off.” And then VAR checks it, and the goal stands anyway. That’s where the frustration really comes from, because the sport has spent years telling us technology would bring clarity.

The BBC explanation is basically this: yes, he was offside by the raw measurement. But the Premier League has kept a tolerance level, a sort of benefit-of-the-doubt buffer, even after bringing in semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). So the system can still land on “onside” if the margin is within that leeway.

Why the league introduced tolerance in the first place

This didn’t come out of nowhere. In the earlier VAR seasons, those offside graphics became a running joke. Lines drawn so tight they were practically stacked on top of each other, and fans being told that someone’s armpit hair had wandered beyond a bootlace.

The backlash was predictable: it felt against the spirit of offside. The law is meant to stop goal-hanging, not punish a forward for existing a fraction ahead of a defender in a sport played at full tilt.

So from 2021-22, leagues brought in a tolerance of around 5cm. If the lines touched, the attacker got the call, no matter what the on-field decision was. The reasoning was straightforward: there are unavoidable uncertainties, like pinning down the exact frame the ball is played, or the precise point on a body used for measurement.

SAOT was meant to end the arguments... except it hasn’t

Here’s the thing: SAOT was sold as the next step, the cleaner step. Other big leagues have moved back towards “offside by the millimetre” with it, basically saying: the tech is better, so let it be definitive.

The Premier League, though, wants to keep that tolerance. It’s partly an admission that even this new kit isn’t being treated as flawless, and partly an ideological choice to lean towards rewarding attackers. In theory, you can see why.

In practice, you end up with what we’ve just had: a player who looks offside to the naked eye, who even reads as offside in the tightest sense, still being awarded the goal because the league has decided that “just off” can still be “given.”

The real problem is trust, not technology

None of this is helped by the fact that fans have been through the full VAR cycle already: the early mess, the promises of improvement, the constant tweaks. It starts to feel like the goalposts move every time we’re told there’s a solution.

If the Premier League wants a benefit-of-the-doubt approach, fine. If it wants millimetre accuracy, fine. But it can’t keep acting surprised when supporters don’t know what “offside” even means week to week. That’s the farce: not the idea of tolerance, but the endless confusion it leaves in its wake.

Written by Wassa-lfc: 13 January 2026

Tags: injury tactics