The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which governs the sport of association football, beach soccer, and futsal internationally, is set to implement the new offside rule step-by-step as per the reports on July 1. It is the proposal by Arsene Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal, which states that a player should be deemed offside, if their entire body, with which they can play the ball, is ahead of the last defender or the second-last opponent.
Currently, the law deems a player offside, if any part of their body including head, hands, or feet, with which they can play the ball, is ahead of the last defender or the second-last opponent. But, since the close-offside calls are officiated with the help of video-assisted refereeing (VAR), the tightest of margins are being ruled in favour or against the strikers or defenders, which has frustrated football fans worldwide.
According to the DirecTV Sports website, FIFA has reportedly planned to implement the new offside rule in Sweden first. It is revealed that the men’s under-21 and women’s under-19 leagues in the country will be using it from the next season. The governing body of international football also decided to bring in changes in Italy and the Netherlands.
Then, the board will analyse the impact of the new rule in these countries with a view to utilise it worldwide in due course, if the results are positive.
As the chief of global football development at FIFA, Arsene Wenger first presented the new offside rule to Gianni Infantino, the President of the Federation Internationale de Football Association in March 2021.
At that time, the FIFA President gave an interview to the Evening Standard about the new rule, in which he said, “When it comes to the offside law, with the change in the game, with the speed in the game, with also the introduction of VAR - which makes it clear when there is an offside and when there is not - without VAR, the referees were having the instructions in case of doubt, you let go.”
“We have been seeing that maybe we can think about a new law which allows a bit more attack in football. And Arsene Wenger presented to us today as well what this could look like and obviously, in summary, it is if the attacking player is ahead of the last defender, or second-last player, but still with one part of the body that can score in line with the defender,” remarked Gianni Infantino.
