FIFA’s Wenger wants offside law changed but no change imminent

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FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football – Coupe de La Ligue Final – Strasbourg v Guingamp – Stade Pierre Mauroy, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France – March 30, 2019 Arsene Wenger with the trophy before the match REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

(Reuters) – FIFA’s head of global development Arsene Wenger wants to see a change in the offside law which could end a run of contentious decisions in the game since the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) but no decision is imminent.

Wenger, who was manager of Premier League club Arsenal for 22 years, wants a player to be deemed onside if any part of their body which can legitimately score a goal is level or behind the last defender.

It will flip the current rule which states the player is in an offside position if any part of their body they can score with is beyond the line of the last defender.

However, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), football’s lawmaking body, does not have any concrete proposal for a law change on the agenda for their February 29, Annual General Meeting.

IFAB’s general secretary Lukas Brud told Reuters that any discussion of changes would be a general one and ruled out an immediate change.

“This particular proposal is not on the agenda for the AGM,” said Brud, adding that any changes to the laws need to go through a consultation process and trials before any concrete change is considered.

“We are not going to take a decision on something like this in 10 days,” he said.

IFAB may discuss ideas for changing the offside laws at the meeting, in general terms, but no decision on a concrete proposal will be made, Brud added.

The use of video review has been a source of constant criticism since its recent introduction, including concern about the time to take decisions and the precision with which offsides are judged.

The system sparked another controversy last week in the Premier League when Wolverhampton Wanderers had a goal ruled out against Leicester City after Pedro Neto’s heel was adjudged to be fractionally offside in the build-up.

“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,” Wenger told British media.

“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.”

Wenger later said in a FIFA statement that he was not making a formal proposal but mentioning a possibility that might be worth thinking about.

“My objective is to continuously think about ways to improve our game and we shouldn’t be afraid to debate them in public,” he said, adding he was well aware of the IFAB process for introducing law changes.

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