At the World Sports Summit held in the early hours of this morning, FIFA President Gianni Infantino publicly mentioned potential reforms to the offside rule.
Infantino said: “We are studying the offside rule—which has evolved. The current standard requires the attacking player to be behind or level with the defending player. In the future, it may be necessary for the attacking player's entire body to be completely beyond the defensive line to be considered offside.”
The new offside rule, known as the "Wenger Rule", was first proposed in 2020 and has been vigorously advocated by Arsène Wenger, who serves as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development in recent years.
In May this year, when talking about this reform, Wenger said: "In 1990, the rule stipulated that an attacking player was not offside if they were level with the defending player, and in case of doubt, the benefit was given to the attack. However, with the introduction of VAR, this advantage for strikers has disappeared. In England, 37 goals have been disallowed due to very tight offside calls, which is very frustrating. That is why I propose that an attacking player should not be offside if they are level with the defending player, and IFAB will make a decision on this within a year."
