Africa-Press – Eswatini. World soccer governing body FIFA is set to trial a significant change to the offside rule ahead of the new season.
This follows a suggestion from legendary former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is looking to change the offside rule. The change will be that the whole body of the attacker must be in front of the defender for the assistant referee to deem the player to be offside.
offside
The proposed new rule opposes the offside rule, which states that a player is off should any part of their body with which they can play the ball, be ahead of the final defender. Under the altered laws, players will only be flagged offside where their entire body, with which they can play the ball, is ahead of the last defender. It’s a change that would undoubtedly see a massive reduction in the number of offside calls during matches. While serving as the chief of global football development at FIFA, Arsene Wenger first presented the new offside rule to Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA in March 2021. Reportedly, Wenger had hoped for the new law to be in place in time for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but unfortunately, that proved too hasty.
As per a report from the Sun of the United Kingdom, the new rule will be first tested in Sweden, with the nation’s men’s Under-21 and women’s Under-19 leagues being used as testing grounds. From there, the new law will then be rolled out in stages across Italy and the Netherlands, with FIFA’s rule change board having to assess its impact from results and observations made as time goes by. An image highlighting how the revised laws would work had gone viral and fans were definitely divided on the idea. Meanwhile, no immediate comment could be drawn from EFA Marketing and Communications Manager Muzi Radebe
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