Please could someine explain the offside rule to me.?

Firstly, the offside position is behind the last defender, and in front of the goalie.

When a player caught a pass in the offside position (the space behind the last defender and the goalie) they get an advantage by having the space between them and the last defender. Making the last defender no chance to defend and the offside player to get an unfair extra moment.

It is an offense each time a player make direct contact with the ball in an offside position. So whether they fired a shot or just passed the ball along, the assistant referee will stop the game.

However, if the player is just stand around an offside position and make no direct contact with the ball, that is not considered as an offense.

Hope that helps, there's a little animation from FIFA that explain a little more detailed the link is included below =]

An opponent is in an offside position when nearer to the goal than the last defender and the ball if they do not have the ball and are not involved in active play.

I officiate a fair number of games and the last phrase is something most fans don't understand. I'll never call a player for an offside infringement if they are away from the play. The other thing people forget is that it can be called prior to the ball being played. In other words, if a player times their run correctly, it may appear as a violation of the law, but in effect the player was onside the entire time.

There is a great interactive explanation of this on FIFAs website.

A player is offside if he is nearer to his opponent's goal line than any opposite player BEFORE having possesion of the ball, or BEFORE the very moment itself the ball is delivered forward, on purpose or not, towards that "gap" between the opponent keeper and the opponents players.

Exception; a player who stands in its own half of the pitch can never be offside, no matter where the rest of the opponents are located.

A player is in an offside position if "he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second to last opponent,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_%28football%2...