FIFA president open to offside rule change to address VAR problems

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has admitted he is open to changing the offside rule in a bid to address problems with VAR.

The Premier League introduced VAR to top-flight matches this season, but the system has come under fire over a number of decisions.

In particular, some of the offside calls have been determined by a mere fraction, with goals being disallowed due to a player’s armpit being offside.

One potential resolution which has been suggested is for players to only be deemed offside if there is clear daylight between them and the last defender.

Now it seems FIFA are willing to make amendments to help resolve the ongoing issues, with representatives due to meet with the International FA Board (IFAB) on Saturday.

Infantino told reporters (via ESPN ): “The offside discussion is an item we need to look at and personally I’m certainly in favour of discussing a new way of looking at the offside rule, to see if it can help, because I think the issue is more an issue of understanding.

“Some of [the decisions] are very, very close and it’s difficult for the people who are watching to see whether it’s offside, so we have to look at whether we can make the offside rule clearer by having light in between.

“But it’s for discussion of course – there will be no decision on this one because there is no proposal on the table. But it is to be discussed and to see whether it has to be tested or not.”

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is now working as head of global development for the governing body, and is also in favour of tweaking the current laws.

“There is room to change the rule a little bit and not say that a part of a player’s nose is offside, so you are offside because you can score with that,” Wenger said.

“Instead, you will not be 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 because you will no longer have decisions about millimetres and a fraction of the attacker being in front of the defensive line.”

Infantino did suggest the implementation of VAR in the Premier League could be the problem however, after stating FIFA did not encounter the same issues with other leagues in Europe.

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But he made one thing clear: “VAR is here to stay as far as FIFA is concerned.”