A van Nistelrooy goal caused the controversy

Southampton and Bolton have been among those trying to use the ruling to their own advantage.

But officials from the Football Association, Premier League and Football League met on Friday to address the issue.

And they agreed to advise referees to call players offside if they are "deceiving or distracting an opponent".

The controversy was launched when Ruud van Nistelrooy scored against Southampton having come back from an offside position.

Academy: The offside rule explained

The law now states that a player in an offside position is only penalised if involved in interfering with play, interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

But the football's authorities will effectively halt Bolton boss Sam Allardyce's ploy of getting his players to deliberately stand offside and run back as the ball is kicked.

The FA's head of refereeing John Baker said: "It was generally felt that a decision needed to be taken on how to apply this interpretation to the type of situations we have seen during the past week, particularly in relation to attacking free-kicks.

"The laws of the game have not been changed, nor has the interpretation: we have simply sought to clarify the manner in which it should applied by referees."