Trial begins for major change to offside rule
Zurich: FIFA’s proposal for a major change to the offside law in favor of attacking teams is beginning trials in the Canadian Premier League this weekend, after failing to gain support from European soccer authorities.
The so-called “daylight offside” idea, pushed by Arsene Wenger in recent years, gives attackers too much of an advantage—too much, according to critics, who say it will cause teams to retreat and defend more cautiously.
In the Canadian game trials, which begin Saturday, attackers will be considered onside if any part of their body that could score a goal is level with the defender in question. In reality, offside is only called when there is clear daylight between the attacker and defender.
Currently, attackers in top-tier games are judged offside by a very small margin by numerous cameras installed in stadiums, often jokingly referred to as “armpit” or “tonal” offside by fans. “This is about keeping the Canadian Premier League at the forefront of innovation and making a significant contribution to the global growth of the game,” Canadian league commissioner James Johnson said in a statement.
Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development, has for several years promoted the daylight offside idea within soccer’s rule-making panel, known as IFAB, which agreed in February to upgrade trials to the Canadian league.
Former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, now a pundit for CBS and Sky Sports, suggested that daylight offside would be “very bad for the game” in 2024 and would lead to teams being more negative rather than scoring more goals.
Wenger’s daylight plan could only be written into the Laws of the Game if at least two of the four British soccer federations, which sit alongside FIFA officials at the annual IFAB meeting, vote for it.
That support has not yet been received, and a compromise option has already emerged, under which an attacker would be considered offside only if their body is ahead of a defender.
