Possible change to the offside law.
Arsène Wenger is to press ahead with his proposal to bring in the most radical change to the offside law for more than 30 years after what he views as positive results from trials.
Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who is now Fifa’s chief of global football development, is set to propose the change — effectively meaning there has to be daylight between attacker and defender for an offside offence — to the International FA Board (Ifab), the game’s law-making body.
There were some concerns that the change would cause too big a tactical shift and give too much advantage to attackers, but Wenger is understood to have been convinced by the results of trials in Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands.
Wenger, 74, is keen on the game adopting the new law as swiftly as possible, but he is likely to face pressure for trials at a more senior level.
Under Wenger’s proposal, if any part of an attacker’s body that can score — head, torso or legs — is still in line with the defender then they should be judged onside. The existing law means that if any of those parts of the body are ahead of the defender then the attacker is offside.
David Dein, the former Arsenal and FA vice-chairman who remains close to Wenger, has backed the proposed law change.
Speaking in Bangkok last week when attending the Fifa Congress, Dein told The Times: “The offside rule has to change as it is too contentious and problematic. Arsène’s idea is refreshingly innovative.”
However it is understood that Luís Figo, the former Portugal forward who is the new head of Uefa’s Football Board, has some reservations about changing the offside law. Ifab board members are also likely to ask for the offside changes to be used in a competition where there is VAR to judge the impact before authorising a full-scale change to the law.
The last major change to the offside law came in 1990 when the Scottish Football Association successfully proposed that attackers could be level with defenders instead of behind them. That was credited with leading to more goals being scored, and Wenger’s proposal would almost certainly mean the same.
Wenger is in charge of overseeing the laws of the game for Fifa and has been working on the proposal for four years.
The move also aims to address one of the consequences of the introduction of VAR which has caused many goals to ruled out by marginal calls missed by match officials.
Wenger said in 2020: “There is room to change the rule and not say that a part of a player’s nose is offside, so you are offside because you can score with that. Instead, you will be not offside if any part of the body that can score a goal is in line with the last defender, even if other parts of the attacker’s body are in front.
“That will sort it out and you will no longer have decisions about millimetres and a fraction of the attacker being in front of the defensive line.”
It would be the most significant change to any of the Laws of the Game since 1992 when the goalkeeper was banned from being allowed to handle back passes.
A Fifa spokesman said: “The discussion around changing the offside law is not new and it is not something we will see introduced at higher levels imminently. The idea was first discussed in 2020 as we felt it was something worth exploring and testing to see the effect it could have on the game. Fifa committed to trialling the amended offside law, favouring the attacker, which has been applied in selected youth competitions across Europe. We will continue with these trials, assess the results and discuss with all relevant stakeholders.”
