In favour of discussing change to offside law, acknowledges Gianni Infantino
FIFA
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confessed that he is open to discussing a change in the offside rule after Arsene Wenger's suggestions that the rule has to be changed. The Arsenal legend has been looking into changing the offside law which has come under immense criticism from across the world.
VAR was introduced to do one job; eliminate discrepancies, though surprisingly it has done quite contrary and that is to generate controversies. The breeding ground of this dissent has been the Premier League where week after week VAR pops up to spoil the play. Players and fans have had their share of disappointments and managers are tired of addressing its meaningless intervention conference after conference.
In an interview earlier last week former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger revealed that he has submitted a brief to change the offside law to help VAR. Wenger was of the belief that the law should be amended in a way, that a player is onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with a defender. The Frenchman’s idea would make life easier for strikers who have seen more decisions than ever due to offsides. Â
His suggestions didn’t go down with a good number of people but FIFA President Gianni Infantino has come to Wenger’s rescue. The Italian went on to admit that there needs to be a discussion to change the law especially with it causing a lot of problems. He also added that VAR has struggled to deliver as promised with that also being looked at.
"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," Infantino told Sky Sports.Â
“The meeting won’t result in immediate changes to the offside law as the course of the amendments will take its formal route, filtered after looking at all the nuances. Even if you put a margin of 10 centimetres and then if it's 11, it's still one more, if it's 10 and a half... so it doesn't solve it. It should be clear."Â
