Arsene Wenger’s proposed offside changes are set for further trials despite opposition from the FA and UEFA, according to a report.
Dale Johnson reports for the BBC that following a presentation at the International Football Association Board’s annual business meeting on Tuesday, further trials have been proposed for Arsene Wenger’s changes to the offside rule.
If the trial is approved at IFAB’s AGM in Cardiff on February 28th, the new trial will begin in the Canadian Premier League in April.
The Canadian trial would be the first outside of youth football, with other leagues set to be invited to take part. Johnson adds that if the trial goes ahead, the results will be presented to IFAB at the end of the year, and a successful trial could lead to a law change for the 2027/28 season.
The proposed changes to offsides would make it such that a player is only offside if their whole body is completely ahead of the last defender, not if just one part of their body is ahead.
Ahead of the annual business meeting, there had been suggestions that the FA and UEFA were against the change, and that they would propose a compromise where a player would be deemed offside only if any of their torso was ahead of the defender.
Yet Johnson’s report reveals that there was opposition to this ‘torso offside’ idea, and it’s now unlikely to go to trials.
Perhaps it’s notable that the trials are going ahead in Canadian football, and not in one of UEFA’s competitions or domestic leagues. European football clearly still needs some convincing that this is a good idea.
As previously mentioned, the next step now is for the trial to be formally approved at the end of February.