Weekly Football Phrase: Flagged for Offside

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In this week’s football phrase we look at the expression flagged for offside after the controversial Manchester City goal in their win over Manchester United. You can read the transcript for this podcast below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions about the phrase or our podcast then you can contact us here.

For Teachers ▸ suggestions on how to use this podcast in class

- Discussion: Show the image (below) and ask the students to describe what they see and to predict what the main idea of the listening will be about
- Vocabulary focus: Ask the students if they know any words and phrases connected to ‘offside‘ – they can do this in any language they know.
- Listening for gist/main idea: Listen to the recording and decide which teams and players are mentioned. What language of offside did they hear?
- Listening for detail: Edit a section of the transcript, removing or change key focus words. Students then listen and fill in the key word or identify the difference between the script and the audio.
- Discussion: Ask the students to find similar phrases in their own language and explain them to you and their classmates
- Writing: Ask students to write a short match report about an offside moment.

Hello

DF: Hello there everyone. My name is Damian and this is the weekly football phrase from the Learn English through football team when we explain a phrase or a football term from the previous weekend’s football. Last week Damon, the other member of the Learn English through football team and who’s based in Tokyo, explained the verb phrase, ‘whistle over‘ – a nice description of a shot that didn’t quite go in. And this week we are going to look at the expression, ‘flagged for offside‘ after the controversy from the recent Manchester derby between United and City.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast

Flag for offside

DF: OK, so the big game in the Premier League last weekend saw Manchester United lose 0-1 at home to rivals Manchester City. There was, however, a lot of controversy and discussion about the winning goal. City’s Norwegian striker Haaland scored at the far post but the assistant referee flagged for offside and so the goal was disallowed. If an assistant referee raises their flag it means that they want to attract the attention of the referee because maybe there has been a foul or an offside. We can say that they flag (or they flagged) for a foul or they flagged for offside – they raised their flag to show that there was an offside offence. So, we might hear phrases like: The player was flagged offside; the player was flagged for offside. Both are fine.

However, in this example Haaland was not offside and when it went to VAR they decided to allow the goal and asked the referee to overturn his decision and award the goal. This means that the referee changes their decision and gives the goal – the goal stands and was not ruled out for offside. Of course, VAR did not seem to notice another Manchester City player in the penalty area who, although he didn’t touch the ball, was clearly interfering with play. He put off both the goalkeeper and the defender which made it a little easier for Haaland to score. He should have been flagged for offside, not Haaland. Here are some examples from the media after the game:

Examples:

Haaland had immediately been flagged for offside but a lengthy video assistant referee (VAR) check ruled the Norwegian to be on (BBC)
But despite the assistant referee flagging for offside, the VAR team overruled the decision by stating that City midfielder Enzo Fernández was not active and interfering with play in the middle of the penalty area (ESPN)
Number 3 is from Sky Sports and it’s a quote from the referees’ association Howard Webb ‘…Webb says he is “really disappointed” by the decision to award the goal, which was initially ruled out on the field due to Haaland being flagged offside. (Sky Sports)

Contact

DF: Remember, if you have any questions or comments about this week’s football expression or indeed any other football language then you can drop us an email at [email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube. We also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football. And, of course, don’t forget to support us by liking our podcasts and sharing them with your friends. Thanks a lot for that indeed.

Language Review

DF: So, on today’s short podcast we have looked at the phrase, ‘flagged for offside’. And this is used to describe the situation in a game when the assistant referee highlights that a player is in an offside position. The player was flagged for offside means that the game has to stop because according to the assistant referee the player was in an offside position and a free kick is given to the opposition. Did you also hear lots of other language connected to offside? Things like, VAR; assistant referee; overturn the decision and disallow.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast (in Arabic)

Goodbye

DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English through football Podcast and that message was in Arabic.

That’s it for this week’s football expression – sorry it’s a little bit late this week. The phrase was ‘flagged for offside’. Don’t forget to check out some teaching tips for use with this listening – just come along to this post and have a look – it is also on our forum thread; we’d be delighted to hear any comments you have about those. We’ll be back with more football language at the weekend with another football-language podcast. And this week we’ll be looking at language for derbies; there are lots of derby games over the weekend. Enjoy the football this week. Bye.

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