Arsene Wenger wants to alter the offside rule (Pictures: Getty/433)
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been slammed by Jamie Carragher over his ‘terrible’ idea for a new offside rule.
Wenger, who now occupies an administrative role at FIFA, is pushing for the offside rule to be updated for the first time in 30 years.
Under current rules, a player is deemed offside if any part of their body from which they can score is closer to the goal line than both the ball and the second-last opposition player in their half.
But Wenger is believed to be keen for an alteration of the rule that would require ‘daylight’ between the defender and attacker for the latter to be deemed offside.
The new rule has been trialled in Sweden, Italy and Netherlands and Wenger is now keen to propose a widespread change to football’s law-makers IFAB.
But former England and Liverpool defender Carragher has slammed the ‘terrible’ proposal and says the rule change would provide an unfair ‘advantage’ to forwards.
‘This will be terrible for the game as teams will defend completely differently than we see now,’ he posted on X.
The current offside rules have remained the same since 1990 (Picture: Getty)
‘Lots of lows blocks and teams being negative. How would you defend a set piece?! We don’t need more advantage for the attacker, the game is seeing more goals scored than ever!’
FIFA, meanwhile, say they intend to carry out more trials before ‘assessing the results’ and discussing findings with ‘relevant stakeholders’.
‘The discussion around changing the offside law is not new and it is not something we will see introduced at higher levels imminently,’ a spokesman for FIFA said.
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‘The idea was first discussed in 2020 as we felt it was something worth exploring and testing to see the effect it could have on the game.
‘FIFA committed to trialling the amended offside law, favouring the attacker, which has been applied in selected youth competitions across Europe.
‘We will continue with these trials, assess the results and discuss with all relevant stakeholders.’
Wenger went public with his plan to change the offside rule in 2020 in response to video assistant referee (VAR) controversy.
‘[I’m speaking about] the offside by a margin of a fraction of a centimetres,’ said the Arsenal legend and three-time Premier League winner.
‘Maybe there is room to change the offside rule a little bit so we don’t say a part of his nose was offside.’
‘My objective, as well as Fifa’s, is to continuously think about ways to improve our game and we shouldn’t be afraid to debate them in public.’
Jamie Carragher has slammed Wenger’s proposal (Picture: Getty)
At the time, then-Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo – now in charge of Nottingham Forest – backed Wenger’s proposal.
‘Everybody that is outside the decision-making of the law can give opinions and clearly the opinions are to improve, to make things better for everybody,’ he said. ‘So, if Arsene Wenger said that, I support it.’
Premier League clubs are set to vote on the future of VAR after Wolves issued a statement calling for it to be removed ahead of the 2024-25 season.
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