{"id":60188,"date":"2026-01-21T02:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=60188"},"modified":"2026-01-21T02:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:32:11","slug":"major-blow-to-wengers-revolution-new-offside-law-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/major-blow-to-wengers-revolution-new-offside-law-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Blow to Wenger\u2019s \u201cRevolution\u201d: New Offside Law Rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The proposed revolution spearheaded by Frenchman Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, FIFA\u2019s Chief of Global Football Development, aimed at reshaping the offside law, appears to have hit a dead end. According to a report published by Spanish newspaper <em>AS<\/em>, the door has been firmly closed on the so-called \u201cWenger Offside Law\u201d following a series of trials that sparked widespread debate within football circles.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wenger\u2019s proposal sought to give attackers a clear advantage, stipulating that a player would only be deemed offside if their entire body was ahead of the last defender.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In other words, if any part of the attacker\u2019s body \u2014 even a heel \u2014 was in line with the defender, the play would be considered legal. The objectives of the proposed change were to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Increase the number of goals scored<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Reduce controversial VAR interventions<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Eliminate \u201cmillimetre\u201d or \u201cfingertip\u201d offside decisions<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>However, <em>AS<\/em> reported that football\u2019s law-making bodies, led by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), concluded that implementing the rule would produce results contrary to its intentions. The key concerns included:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Defensive retreat: Defenders would be forced to drop excessively deep to cope with attackers\u2019 pace, compressing space and diminishing the spectacle of open play.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased refereeing complexity: Rather than simplifying decisions, officials found it difficult to judge whether an attacker\u2019s entire body had moved beyond the defensive line in fast-moving situations.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Division among clubs and coaches: Trials in certain competitions, including Swedish leagues and Italian youth football, revealed a change so radical that it risked distorting the game\u2019s historical identity.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The Future of Semi-Automated Offside and VAR<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Following the \u201csurprising decision\u201d to abandon Wenger\u2019s proposal, the focus will remain on refining semi-automated offside technology \u2014 used at the Qatar World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations \u2014 which prioritizes speed and precision in line-drawing without altering the core principles of the existing law.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed revolution spearheaded by Frenchman Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, FIFA\u2019s Chief of Global Football Development, aimed at reshaping the offside law, appears to have hit a dead end. According to a report published by Spanish newspaper AS, the door has been firmly closed on the so-called \u201cWenger Offside Law\u201d following a series of trials that sparked &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60190,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60188\/revisions\/60190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}