THE offside rule causes more arguments among football fans then any other.

And now a leisure centre has been shown the red card after unveiling a sports sculpture designed to illustrating the rules - and getting them wrong.

Creator Sarah Haywood used a set of rules several years out of date when working on the £15,000 glass artwork at the Triangle Leisure Centre in Burgess Hill, opened by the Queen earlier this year.

But it is wrong because it was based on the old laws which included the rule that the attacking player had to be behind the ball.

Latest rules say the attacker can be level with a defender.

The artwork is a stainless steel framework and three plexi-glass panels.

Katherine Nicholas, leisure planning and development manager for Mid Sussex Council, defended it, saying: "It is not something that is set in stone saying this is the offside rule.

"Basically it is an arts feature set in a sports venue."

Dave Worsfold, general secretary of the Sussex County FA said the law had changed four or five years ago.

Graham Wilson, Referees Association representative on the Mid Sussex Football League, said: "It causes more confusion than anything."

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