Offside coin
January 5, 2012
Casual fans of the beautiful game are sometimes put off by soccer's offside rule, and exasperated explanations from those who do understand it are not always sufficient.
To help achieve clarity in the matter, Britain's Royal Mint has issued a commemorative 50-pence coin with a diagram on the back that explains the offside rule. The coin is part of a series that are being minted ahead of the London Olympics this summer. Fifty pence is about 60 euro cents, or $0.77.
Twenty-nine commemorative coins are being made in total, one for each event of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A commemorative five-pound coin is also being made.
The offside coin was created by Neil Wolfson, a journalist who entered a public competition for the design two years ago.
"I'm a sports journalist by trade and I saw this opportunity as a natural extension of what I do," said Wolfson. "This design itself is just a case of lateral thinking."
"I'm a football fan, I followed the Premier League since its inception and if I had 50p for every time someone had asked me to explain the offside rule I'd be a very rich man," he added.
The offside 50-pence coins are already in circulation.
Author: Matt Zuvela (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Niclole Goebel