Infantino favours ‘daylight’ offside law

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spoken in favour of introducing the daylight principle to the offside law to bring extra clarity.There has been a great deal of controversy over offsides in the Premier League this season, with a number of goals ruled out by very fine margins after VAR checks.FIFAs chief of global football development Arsene Wenger said last week that the law should be changed so that a player is onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with the relevant defender, a view which Infantino clearly shares.Liverpool's Roberto Firmino was flagged offside before putting the ball in the net against Aston Villa and the decision was confirmed by VARThe red line signifies Firmino and was aligned to his armpit, which was marginally ahead of the last Villa defender#AVLLIV pic.twitter.com/a2OnNWnz2E Premier League (@premierleague) November 2, 2019Im 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, he said as he arrived in Belfast for Saturdays annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board, the games law-making body.Some of (the decisions) are very, very close and its difficult for the people who are watching to see whether its offside, so we have to look at whether we can make the offside rule clearer by having light in between.There can be no change to the offside law at this weekends meeting because any alterations would have to go through the proper process and be examined by IFABs football and technical advisory panels.But the comments clearly indicate the direction of travel on offside as Infantino sees it."Making football truly global, at every level, is the core task for FIFA to pursue over the coming years" FIFA President Gianni InfantinoLearn more about the president's vision here https://t.co/Ujy24bzo8W pic.twitter.com/a8HzkRpblJ FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) February 27, 2020Asked whether some leeway could be introduced on VAR reviews, he said: It doesnt solve the issue.Even if you put a margin of 10 centimetres and then if its 11, its still one more, if its 10 and a half so it doesnt solve it. It should be clear.Infantino agreed when asked whether the debate about offside was one that only seemed to be happening in England.In Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in Germany this offside discussion is not existing on the VAR, he said.But its not a problem, its something to look into. And maybe it shows that actually its more a question of the rule and the application of the rule, and application of the VAR itself.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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