AT the Reading v Sheffield Wednesday match there was a little unsavoury incident between an assistant referee and a couple of members of the Wednesday staff.

It happened after an offside decision but it wasn’t the decision that created the acrimony, but where the free kick was taken.

The Reading player was in an offside position only a little way inside the Wednesday half, but he chased after a ball that was played down close to the Wednesday goal line.

The assistant referee, one of the excellent women officials in the professional game today, sprinted alongside him and when he finally played the ball, she raised her flag.

Wednesday wanted to take the free kick back where the Reading player started his run, but she was adamant it had to be taken where he played the ball.

Two disgruntled Wednesday staff came out of their technical area to harangue the assistant referee.

This only displayed their ignorance of the law.

The law clearly states that a player should not be penalised for being in an offside position, but only when the player who was offside touches the ball or interferes with the play or opponents.

The two things, being offside and interfering with the game, might happen in two different places, as was the case here.

The laws have accentuated in this season’s rewrite, that the kick must be where the interference, the offence, took place. It refers especially to where a player is offside in his opponents’ half, but runs back to play the ball inside his own half after it had been played by a team mate.

Normally the assistant referee remained where the player had been but now he, or she, must follow the player into the other half and, if he interferes with play, flag for offside there.

The kick will be taken at that point despite the law saying players can’t be offside in their own half.