Hamburg - Luca Toni was booked for disputing the call and Germany coach Joachim Loew also admitted he didn't know the rule that made Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal at Euro 2008 stand. Football officials on Tuesday swiftly tried to explain the complicated business from the previous night which involved the offside rule and a defender lying outside the pitch.
"There is a lack of knowledge in the football community, and that is absolutely understandable. A player is part of the game even if he isn't on the playing field," UEFA general secretary David Taylor told a news conference in the Swiss city Basle.
German refereeing authority Eugen Strigel also confirmed that Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt had made the right call to let the opening goal in the Netherland's 3-0 win over Italy stand on Monday night in Berne, Switzerland.
The dispute originated from the fact that there was no Italian field player between van Nistelrooy and the goal when he scored, with defender Christian Panucci lying just outside the playing field after being pushed there in a collision with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
The offside rule in the official Laws Of The Game issued by the ruling body FIFA states: "A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent."
By FIFA rules a player is part of the game even if he is not on the playing field itself, as pointed out by Taylor.
And as Panucci was closer to the goal line around one metre from it than van Nistelrooy, who slid in from around five metres to score, the goal stood.
FIFA also has a bylaw in which players leaving the field deliberately to place opponents offside are to be yellow-carded.
Strigel told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
