Virgil van Dijk hit and referee Felix Zwayer (Picture: Getty)
Dutch football is considering scrapping the offside rule to deal with an increase in violent incidents – but the ban would only apply to amateur matches.
It comes after the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) revealed that 1,864 matches were stopped because of violent incidents, in part due to disputed offside calls.
The staggering figures mark an 11 per cent increase compared to the previous season as well as a 58 per cent increase over a five-year period.
In order to address the issues, the Dutch governing body is now considering a radical rule change which would scrap the use of assistant managers in amateur football.
Such a change would also mean the removal of the offside rule.
‘It is true that it is a relatively small number compared to the almost 780,000 matches that are played annually, but we are not going to trivialise it,’ KNVB director Jan Dirk van der Zee said.
‘We have a problem, and we want to eradicate it. I do not rule out that we will one day stop using assistant referees.’
Assistant referees and the offside rule could be scrapped in Dutch amateur football (Picture: Getty)
As with grassroots football in England, many amateur matches in the Netherlands use assistant referees who are not professionally trained and are usually associated with one of the teams involved.
The KNVB confirmed the potential changes would only apply to amateur matches but gave no timeline towards the possible implementation of the radical rules change.
The body has also looked to make changes to the professional game to address the abuse faced by referees.
In July, it brought in a new measure for the new season which stipulated that only a captain could approach a referee to question a decision.
The proposal was initially brought in at this summer’s European Championship and was also used at the Olympic Games in Paris.
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