Arsene Wenger pushed for changes in the VAR offside rule at the International Football Association Board (IFAB) meeting and FIFA President Gianni Infantino has given him his full support.
The VAR offside rule has been causing a lot of controversy throughout English football since its inception last year.
Many teams have had goals disallowed due to minor infringements leading for a call to change the rule.
At the IFAB meeting, Gianni Infantino gave his full support on the matter stating:
“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.”
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Although he has agreed on looking into the matter, any changes agreed on can not be implemented immediately as they would have to follow the proper channels.
One interesting point that came out in the meeting was that the VAR offside controversy seemed to be isolated to England.
“In Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Germany this offside discussion is not existing on the VAR,” the FIFA President said.
This meant that the problem may not lie in VAR technology itself but more so in the implementation of the rule by officials as he went on to add:
“maybe it shows that actually it’s more a question of the rule and the application of the rule, and application of the VAR itself.”
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Arsene Wenger, who sits on the IFAB technical panel made a good suggestion as to how the VAR offside rule should be interpreted when he previously talked on the subject 2 weeks ago saying :
“Maybe there is room to change the offside rule a little bit so we don’t say a part of his nose was offside.”
“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”.
