ZURICH (AP) – FIFA’s proposal to drastically change offside laws to favor attacking teams will go on trial in the Canadian Premier League this weekend after failing to win support from European soccer officials.
The so-called “daylight offside” concept promoted by manager Arsene Wenger in recent years gives attackers a big advantage, but critics say it also pushes teams back and forces them to defend more carefully.
In Canada’s match trial, which begins Saturday, an attacker will be considered onside if the part of his body capable of scoring a goal is at the same height as the defender. In effect, offside is only called if there is clear daylight between the attacker and defender.
Attackers in top-level matches are now judged offside by the slimmest of margins by numerous cameras in stadiums, and are often derided by fans as “armpit” or “toenail” offside.
“This is designed to position the Canadian Premier League at the forefront of innovation and meaningfully contribute to the global evolution of the game,” said Canadian League Commissioner James Johnson. stated in a statement.
Wenger, FIFA’s head of world soccer development, has been promoting the Daylight initiative for several years with the Soccer Rulemaking Board, known as IFAB, which agreed in February to upgrade the trials to the Canadian League.
Former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, now a pundit for CBS and Sky Sports, suggested in 2024 that teams would be more reluctant to score more goals than offside in daylight hours because it would be “terrible for the game”.
Wenger’s daylight plan can be written as: laws of the game Subject to a vote from at least two of the four British football federations present with FIFA officials at the IFAB Annual General Meeting.
That has not yet been endorsed, and a compromise proposal has already been announced that would only rule offside if the attacker’s torso is beyond the defender.
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