https://www.goal.com/en/lists/revealed-arsene-wenger-push-radical-change-offside-rule-trial-results-give-attackers-huge-advantage/bltbd9aaa67f9af225e

Just leave the sport alone 

As a grassroots referee - I do not like this at all.
We cop abuse for getting offsides wrong quite a lot, and this is only going to add further to it. It's much easier to spot if part of a player is ahead at the kick-point, than it is for 'daylight'

Plus, on top of that, Wenger mentions that we won't be having conversations of "millimetres" anymore.
Well.. yes we will, the line is just being drawn in a different place.

I liked the 'thick line' approach to offside VAR. Whether it was 10/15cm lines or whatever, and overlap meant onside. May not be useful without VAR since you will have constant fights about it wherever you place the line as you say NicCarBel but it then goes back to the 'advantage to the attacker' principle when it is close.

Personally I would also like to get rid of passive offside if players are not injured or clearly moving back into an onside position and out of the play. As others have said - if there is no advantage being gained by standing offside why are they doing it? They gain a passive advantage at the minimum which is still an advantage.

Yes, I would rather give the advantage to the attacker. I think that's the best approach to having a modified offside principle for VAR - the line isn't this automated 1 pixel long, gives allowance for that bit of doubt - and if inconclusive, the on-field decision stands.

Passive offside... I see your point, at least for those nearby. If it's the other side of the field though (I.e, player right in front of the AR is offside, but the ball is played along the other wing), then I don't think it's an issue if that player in front of the AR is offside or not.

will bring the through ball back
the through ball has gradually declined as an attacking option

No var in not intervene if the ref gave benefit of the doubt the to the striker and got that obviously wrong. Go back to the old rules and use var for good. Simple. 

It'd be tricky to get right but I've always felt that once the ball enters the final 3rd the offside rule is lifted. While I don't want to see a player lingering around the keeper, I think something along those lines would spare a lot of issues. 

It doesn't remove a pass from within your own half into the final 3rd though. That's the flaw. Perhaps once the ball passes the height of the goal box offside is removed? 

Say the keeper parries and a player is offside in the 5 yard box. It does feel unjust and we'd see new scoring records. So then it'd be better to live with being graded minimally offside? I suppose so then. 

A player offside for a square ball may be off balance to shoot it first time anyway. 

Something has to be done somewhere. 

VAR is good for those glaring offsides missed in the hectic but I agree. Take the scene at face value provided the media and pundits don't use the error as their focus post match. 

I thought Edmondson was offside for the 3rd goal and even he slowed a bit but played on. Often we don't see how truly deep a defender is. 

At grassroots level this is a nightmare.

yep always has been, worse now due to modern days, so many watching top flight leagues and the intro of tech.
Offside pre VAR was plain and simple play to the whistle, some would accpet the AR's /Refs call some not, moaning on the sidelines (taht hasn't changed but worse) but you felt what goes around comes around.
Today oh we have to use tech, its actually added to the complication go figure.
Plain and simple offside is offside, now Wenger wants to introduce another technicality that part of the body passed the defender is still onside.
All and good at top flight with the cameras/VAR BUT what about at the millions of leagues that deal with us weekend warriors.
Next we'll have players whinging to Muz/NCB half the body was onside ffs lol
Am I reading all this right ?

Watching a local high level Prem1 game Saturday, back in the day you used to maybe have 1 or 2 smart attacking players learnt the dark arts how to play the refs for free kicks/pns etcetc....
Today at these levels and NPL its like every single player knows how to perform 
Oscar winning performances, seriously on the sideline would luv to get on and take one of these actors out properly, and then say your not acting now are ya you flog :) bloody prima donnas.
Don't know what level you guys are reffing, Prem1 for the guy I watched Saturday was way out of his depth within 10/15mins into the game, was a melting pot by FT, 2 wrongly called pens, cards a plenty, 2 reds - exciting arvo from the sideline.

Also, for the overwhelming majority of the time (at the pro level), the linesman were pretty much bang on. Sure, you'd get the occasional howler, but the majority of the time they were within a very reasonable margin of error. Pre-VAR, how often would you be watching on the TV, the flag goes up, you yell BS at your TV. Then they show the slow-mo replay and sure enough, it's offside.

yep agreed, those top flight lino's are pretty damn good.
No one is perfect.

We all jump up and down but in the end you just move on.
Now its a ongoing saga forever - thats what tech is doing, causing more questions and bitching than before.
That rule not bringing up the flag till after play has gone dead for an offside is a joke might I add, pull up the offside straight away and stop the bloody play, don't allow till it carries on and the ball is in the goal only stupidly to be overruled, in the meantime the backs have stopped calling for the flag, seriously what a joke.

I'm more pissed because of tech someone somewhere has to come up with another suggested change ??????!!!!!!~!!
Its a simple game, and it needs to be a flowing game more than anything else, how many more stoppages of play in the future and next great tech use idea ?!

Sports putting aside the $$$$$'s ruining them, some just don't need all the tech, football for starters.
Goal line tech brilliant tick, VAR come the day its monitered more consistant sure fine, something in back play that should be called back yep, the rest forget it.
Refs/AR's have lost confidence,
Leave the bloody game alone.

It will make the high line almost redundant, I dont know why Wenger wants to change this.

I’m glad you understood what I wrote. Yeah var is supposed to be for obvious mistakes. Give the striker benefit if the doubt but use daylight as the line. If the ref/linesman calls it way outside that. Var intervenes. Otherwise, attacking advantage play on. Like the old fkn days

I'd love to see any adjustment to the offside rule to favour attackers.

That's exactly right. Defenders will sit deep and it'll become a snoozefest.

Ridiculous change.

On top of that a broadcasting culture of not showing or pausing when the pass was made needs to be implemented. Flag up and then players need to take the free kick quickly. No more stupid dwelling on it. It doesn't happen on iFollow for the EFL and it should be the same everywhere.

This could put us well on the way.....

All we need to do after that is to get rid of the handling the ball rule (maybe change the ball shape to make it easier to handle).
Extend the goal uprights vertically.
Give say six points for putting in the net and one point for putting it above but between the uprights.
Eventually we could allow players to run with the ball until forcefully brought to the ground and restart play where that occurs.

Problem would be with players lingering behind the opposition at that point I guess and getting it too easy.  This would have to be balanced against the hundreds of points a game that the evolved system would bring. 

So many points would occur in a game that everybody would be super hyped all the time and you could easily go get a pie and head for the dunny mid-match and not missmuch of the continuous excitement.

You might have to tidy up play a bit after all these great changes are implemented.  What you might do is draw an imaginary line between the attacking side and the defending side based on the position of the ball.  Don't allow the attackers to stand in behind the defenders.  That would make the game interesting and watchable even though it might stop a continuous stream of easy-as-fuck, skill-less, common as dogshit goals from being scored every 3 minutes. 

/S


Stop this stupid shit that "makes goals easier" because just maybe it's the difficulty in scoring goals and the explosion of emotion and outpouring of grief associated with that which makes this game actually great.

Just in case I was too subtle above:

This stupid-as-fuck proposal would completely destroy skilful play.

If it was implemented all you would is stay in your own half (play low block) and put the fastest sprinter you could get up front. Is Usain Bolt still available?
This one guy could stand behind the last defender blocking him, just touching him with a shoulder, back or heel. Route one ball over the top, sprint, shot!  HURRAH!!!!

What a shit game they could make of our sport just because some overpaid drunken git from the past wanted to make his mark.

LOL, its not whiskey nose Fergi mind you, ol Wenger is losing the plot thats for sure !

On one hand - constantly tinkering with the rules is annoying.

On the other hand - this makes a lot more sense than the current system.
There will always be edge cases, but I prefer this idea of "The striker is onside because there's no 'daylight' between him and the last defender" over the current "The striker is offside because his big toe on one foot was 2cm ahead of the last defender"


>At grassroots level this is a nightmare.
It feels like this would be a much easier call for the linesman to make at grassroots level.

Think about feet in motion. One foot is in front, one behind. They are moving in a roughly circular motion. (And constantly alternating as to which is in front.) A player half a metre behind (whose feet are doing the same thing) will have the player's foot in front of him constantly overlapping with his foot as they're running, which is also constantly moving and alternating in a circular motion.

Way too hard.

In fact in VAR I'm not so sure how this will work because just like a horse has all 4 legs off the ground in a split second there will be instances where there is clear daylight between the trailing and leading legs AND an instance when they overlap a split second later even though no distance has closed between those 2 players.

It's a bunch of guff unless I've imagined this wrong.

I'd add to this, but Muz sums it up pretty well above.

It is much, much, much easier for us to see if ANY part of a player is beyond a certain point, than for ALL of a player to be beyond a certain point.