Arsene Wenger is reportedly set to maintain his push for a thorough change to the offside law in football.
Current rules deem a player offside if any part of their head, body or feet is closer to their opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opposition player in their half.
These regulations have been in place since 1990 but the Daily Telegraph reports former Arsenal boss Wenger wants to change this for the first time in over 30 years.
Wenger, who now serves as chief of global football development for FIFA, believes if any part of the body that a player can score from is still in line with the defender, they are onside.
The report suggests that such a change to the rules would mean there needs to be ‘daylight’ between the attacker and defender for offside to be called.
Results from trials in Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands are said to have convinced Wenger ahead of his push for a change to football’s law-making body International Football Association Board [IFAB].
One concern of his proposal is the fact that it could offer attackers too much of an advantage when running towards goal, but Wenger is eager for football to take on his suggested new law ‘as swiftly as possible’.
The 74-year-old is set to be pressured into conducting more trials at senior levels of football though.
“The discussion around changing the offside law is not new and it is not something we will see introduced at higher levels imminently,” a spokesman for FIFA said.
“The idea was first discussed in 2020 as we felt it was something worth exploring and testing to see the effect it could have on the game.
“FIFA committed to trialling the amended offside law, favouring the attacker, which has been applied in selected youth competitions across Europe. We will continue with these trials, assess the results and discuss with all relevant stakeholders.”
Wenger previously spoke on his radical new change in 2020 amid tight calls being made by VAR, with some players being deemed as offside by just mere millimetres.
“There is room to change the rule and not say that a part of a player’s nose is offside, so you are offside because you can score with that,” he said.
“Instead, 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.
“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.”
Contentious offside decisions have particular irked fans in recent years, particularly when VAR was introduced in the Premier League in 2019.
However, clubs in the English top-flight are set to vote on scrapping VAR from as early as this summer in what could be another big change.