Why referees took nearly three minutes to rule out Netherlands’ goal against France

The Netherlands believed they had finally broken the deadlock after nearly 70 minutes of play against France. Xavi Simons’ shot from outside the box – like many other goals in the Euro 2024 – was phenomenal. But his joy didn’t last long after the linesman raised his flag for offside.

For 2 minutes and 47 seconds after that, the referee and the team of video assistants analysed the goal before ruling it out. Simons was not at fault. In fact, it came down to the interpretation of the offside law.

What happened?

Both teams struggled to find the back of the net so when Simons finally scored in the 69th minute, it felt like a significant moment, with the Netherlands thinking they could sneak a famous victory. Unfortunately for them, the goal was immediately ruled out for offside, with the assistant referee deeming that Dutch full-back Denzel Dumfries was standing past France’s backline.
However, Dumfries was neither directly involved in the move nor did touch the ball. The question then was whether he impacted play in any way and obstructed French goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
After a lengthy consultation, the officials ruled that Dumfries not only stood at an off-side position but obstructed Maignan’s line of vision, making it impossible for him to either see the ball or make the save.

What do the rules say?

According to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which determines the rules of the game, Dumfries was guilty of the rule that states — A player in an off-side position at the moment the ball is played or touched by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by: preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision

Could the goalkeeper have saved the shot?

It doesn’t matter if Maignan could’ve saved the shot or not as that’s not a consideration for the officials — they cannot decide about a keeper’s ability. The officials have to ask themselves whether Dumfries had an impact on Maignan, and if that affected his decision not to make a dive to attempt the save. In this case, they ruled that it did and so, it was given an offside.

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