If we did not have this interpretation of the player being off the pitch then what could happen is that the defending team could use the tactic of stepping off the pitch deliberately to play players offside, and that clearly is unacceptable. The most simple and practical interpretation of the law in this instance is the one that is adopted by referees throughout the world – that is that unless you have permission from the referee to be off the pitch, you are deemed to be on it and deemed to be part of the game
We can argue this as much as we want Seven but it's a good rule. Only this year in serie A i've seen minimum 10 similar situations where the players acted injuries just to stop a counter or they fall in their box and don't stand up just so the opponents will stop the attack.
There probably were many similar situations where defender stepped off the pitch deliberately to play players offside and that's how UEFA came up with this rule.
The referee couldn't have known if Panucci is really injured or he's acting in order to stop a dangerous Dutch attack.
Plus, we all know that if Italians scored such goal everyone would defend this rule.
We can argue this as much as we want Seven but it's a good rule. Only this year in serie A i've seen minimum 10 similar situations where the players acted injuries just to stop a counter or they fall in their box and don't stand up just so the opponents will stop the attack.
There probably were many similar situations where defender stepped off the pitch deliberately to play players offside and that's how UEFA came up with this rule.
The referee couldn't have known if Panucci is really injured or he's acting in order to stop a dangerous Dutch attack.
Plus, we all know that if Italians scored such goal everyone would defend this rule.
