One fact about soccer is that every man understands the offside rule, but no woman does!

A gross oversimplification, of course, but there might be something in it! The rule is that a player is offside if there are fewer than two players between him and the opposition goal line at the moment that the ball is passed forward to him from a member of his own team. This leads to all sorts of debates, because the decision is usually made by a linesman (assistant referee) who has to make a split-second judgment based on his view of two things, namely the position of the offending player and the moment of the pass being made. If he is parallel with the play at the time, he has a reasonable chance of doing this, but if not

Another interesting fact is that Leicester City have an amazing knack of throwing the game away in the 90th minute. They've been doing it for years and I wish they wouldn't!

The F.A. Cup is the world's greatest club competition. That is surely true, because it is watched by people all over the world, and has a history of bringing together the giants and the minnows on the same pitch. And sometimes the minnows win!

This year has been no exception, with the exploits of Havant and Waterlooville reaching the fourth round and scoring twice against Liverpool.

A word of explanation for the uninitiated. Every club in the country (that is, England and Wales, Scotland has its own competition) that is registered with the Football Association is entitled to enter the competition. This includes a whole host of amateur clubs who play in local leagues as well as the professionals. After a number of preliminary rounds, there will be a number of these clubs who reach the "first round proper", which is when the lower tier professional clubs join in. All the rounds are drawn from scratch, so a small amateur non-league club can find itself playing a professional league club.

When the third round is reached, the top clubs enter the draw. If any of the minnows have survived to this stage, they stand a chance of drawing a club that is oozing with international players who earn millions and own private jets. That brings us back to Havant and Waterloovile, a club that features part-time footballers but which had managed to beat two clubs from higher leagues before the fourth round brought them a draw against the mighty Liverpool, who are challenging for glory in the top division and have twice won the European Cup in recent years.

Not only did the plucky South Coast team score first at Anfield (the Liverpool ground) but, after Liverpool equalised, they did it again! OK, the final score was 5-2 to Liverpool, but the achievement was incredible and the whole country was enthused by their exploits.

Any more facts about soccer? It's a game of two halves, the winners are over the moon, the losers sick as parrots, and referees have to leave their guide dogs in the changing room. That should be enough to be getting on with.

Learn more about this author, John Welford.
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