FIFA plans to implement drastic changes to football
The International Football Federation (FIFA) has suggested altering the regulations for video replays, enabling coaches to request viewing of controversial episodes. FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced this proposal at the 74th FIFA Congress on May 17, 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
If all tests prove successful, the new regulations will be implemented globally. In recent years, football officials have been increasingly revising the game, considering changes to rules that have remained unchanged for decades.
In the spring, the federation began testing innovations at youth tournaments, using the new video replay system. They intend to give the team's head coaches the opportunity to contact the video referee twice per match.
“Each coach will be able to request viewing twice per match. Players can ask the coach to make a request if the decision of the main referee seems to be incorrect. If the referee changes his initial decision, the request will not be expired, and the coach will have two views,” Infantino explained.
In the spring, the federation began testing another innovation, which caused a lot of controversy. In the near future, the rule for determining offside may also change in football.
Under the new rules, a player will be deemed offside if their entire body is ahead of the last defender. Currently, an attacker is considered offside if they are even one millimeter ahead of a defensive player. However, this rule only applies to body parts that can legally score a goal; therefore, hands are excluded.
For several years, ex-Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger, who took over as head of FIFA's football development department after leaving the club, has been pushing for a change to the offside rule. The revised definition of offside will significantly benefit attacking players.
Arsene’s proposal is simple: cancel the existing notion “if your nose is offside, then your whole body is offside.”
He suggests a new modification where a player is not deemed offside if at least one part of the body that can legally score a goal is on or behind the line of the last defender, even if other parts are beyond this line. A player would only be in an offside position if their entire body is closer to the opponent's goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last opponent.
According to Marca, the new offside rules could be officially adopted in February 2025. In this case, FIFA might advise top leagues to implement the updated rules in the 2025/26 season and also during the upcoming World Cup.
