Wenger’s proposed offside law change opposed by UEFA and British associations

January 14 – Arsene Wenger’s proposal for a reform of the offside law has been opposed by the British FAs and UEFA ahead of the meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) next week.

Wenger’s proposal is that a player would be in an offside position if their entire body was completely beyond the last defender – the creation of ‘daylight’ between the defender and the attacker.

FIFA is expected to ask IFAB to authorise trials of the new rule proposal before a full decision is taken on its implementation.

The IFAB board is made up of the four British national associations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – who each have four votes, as well as four votes from FIFA. To pass a rule change there has to be approval by three-quarters of the vote, or at least six of the eight votes.

The British associations reached out to UEFA for their opinion before next week’s meeting. UEFA’s opinion is that the Wenger proposal is too radical, arguing it would force defenders to sit much deeper, putting an end to high defensive lines and altering the tactical approach of the modern game. It has been pointed out that the difference in the forward positioning of the attacker could be as much as 2 metres.

All the stakeholders agree that there would be no change before the World Cup saying it would be “unfair” to force national teams to adjust styles of play and tactics in such a short period of time before the finals this summer.

It is expected that a separate proposal will be made where a player will be deemed offside if any part of their torso is ahead of the defender. Feet, legs and head would not be ruled offside in this proposal. The Premier League’s semi-automated offside system (SAT) gives 5cm of tolerance to an attacker, though FIFA wants to seem more advantage in favour of the attacker.

FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino want to make the game more offensive, with more goals creating what it believes would be more excitement. But increasing the number of goals in a match does not necessarily increase the match tension or stadium atmosphere, or the competitiveness between teams. The unintended result could be that widens the gap between teams who can acquire the most expensive forwards and those that have made themselves competitive through tactical organisation, hence taking much of the jeopardy out of the fixture.

FIFA believes the introduction of VAR and semi-automated offside technology has resulted in the attacking balance being shifted too far in favour of defenders. Wenger’s proposal could dramatically shift the balance the other way in favour of forwards and towards very one-sided scorelines.

Speaking in Dubai last month, Infantino said: “Perhaps in the future the attacker would have to be completely ahead to be considered offside.”

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