I disagree - off the pitch has always been seen as a 'safe area'.
The law was brought in to stop defenders betraying the spirit of the game by 'cheating' and stepping over the end-line to play an attacker off-side. That's fair enough, but it has the potential to punish players who go over the end-line with no intention of 'cheating' anybody.
It also has the potential to reward an attacking player who deliberately takes advantage of an injury to a defensive player who is lying off the field of play (we've all seen injured players limp/crawl to the side-line/end-line) by allowing himself to be played onside. That certainly isn't in the spirit of the game either.
I'm not accusing Van Nistelrooy of doing it, but it is possible, and in my opinion, wrong.
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