Izuchukwu Okosi
World football governing body FIFA are close to introducing another major new change to the offside rule.
The proposal for the alteration was put forward by former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who has been working as FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development for the past four years, having left the Gunners in 2018.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelWenger wants to adapt the rule yet again, this time changing what part of the body is uses to decide offside.
At the moment, a player is offside when they are in the opponents’ half and, when the ball is played, any part of the body is closer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent.
One of those two opponents is almost always the goalkeeper, so usually if either the ball or one outfield opponent is not between the player and the goal line, the player will be offside.
However, FIFA are set to tweak the offside law. Wenger’s proposal will see that changed to the whole goal-scoring body of the player. This means that if any part of the body is behind the last defender, the attacker will remain onside.
Unquestionably the news will leave attackers feeling buoyant, given a major advantage when looking to make runs off the back of opponents.
Naturally, a striker will balance themselves in a forward motion with their arms ahead to point where they are set to run – a much better position than a defender who is both having to monitor the ball and track their run.
The rule change will be first implemented in a trial period in Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
