FIFA To Consider New Offside Rule As Proposed By Asrene Wenger
The Federation of International Football Association, FIFA may be considering a new rule for offside calls.
FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger said last week that the law should be amended so that a player is onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with the relevant defender.
The FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spoken in favour of introducing the ‘daylight’ principle to the offside law to bring extra clarity.
Certainly there has been a great deal of controversy over offsides in the English Premier League this season, with a number of goals shoved out by very fine margins after VAR checks.
Infntino said and we quote:
“I’m certainly in favour of discussing a new way of looking at the offside rule, to see if it can help, because I think the issue is more an issue of understanding,” he said as he arrived in Belfast for Saturday’s annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board, the game’s law-making body.”
“Some of (the decisions) are very, very close and it’s difficult for the people who are watching to see whether it’s offside, so we have to look at whether we can make the offside rule clearer by having light in between.”
The president believes that even if some leeway are introduced on VAR reviews, “It doesn’t solve the issue. Infantino also agreed that the debate over offside is predominantly in England. In Infantino’s words:
“Even if you put a margin of 10 centimetres and then if it’s 11, it’s still one more, if it’s 10 and a half… so it doesn’t solve it. It should be clear.”
“In Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Germany this offside discussion is not existing on the VAR,” he said.
“But it’s not a problem, it’s something to look into. And maybe it shows that actually it’s more a question of the rule and the application of the rule, and application of the VAR itself.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kANKkYNoOPs]
