England’s bid for VAR leeway backed by Germany and Spain (Times)

Fifa will be warned this weekend that marginal offside VAR decisions are in danger of killing the excitement of the game and that it needs to allow competitions the option to give attackers some leeway.

English football chiefs hope that backing from Germany, Spain and Uefa will persuade Fifa to allow them some flexibility. The issue will be decided at the International FA Board (Ifab) meeting in Belfast on Saturday.

The FA is supporting a proposal, also backed by the Premier League and other football bodies in Europe, saying that as the technology involved in offsides is still not 100 per cent perfect that individual competitions should be permitted to decide what is deemed clear and obvious.

Premier League referees chiefs have calculated that allowing 10cm leeway in marginal offside decisions would have allowed nine more goals to stand in the top flight this season. That could be built into VAR systems by drawing thicker lines to determine if a player is clearly offside.

One source involved in the talks said: “We are losing too many goals, killing excitement and losing sight of the objective that football should be entertaining.”

Fifa’s support is crucial because it has four of the eight votes on Ifab, with the four British associations having one each and at least six are needed to pass a proposal.

The head of Fifa’s referees committee Pierluigi Collina has opposed any flexibility in the past, arguing that offside is a black and white decision. However, Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino is believed to have responded sympathetically to the view that the technology is still not accurate enough to be foolproof.

Marginal offsides are a particular issue in English football compared to in Italy, for example, partly due to the tendency of Premier League teams to play a high defensive line.

Arsène Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who now in charge of the laws of the game for Fifa, will be a key influence on the decision. Earlier this month he confirmed that Fifa is considering proposing a change the offside law itself to that there has to be daylight between the attacker and defender for the former to be ruled offside.

That idea is expected to be discussed at Ifab, but with no decision. However, the former Premier League referee Howard Webb said that he expects a change in the future.

Webb, now head of referees for Major League Soccer, said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if some adjustments are made. When I started refereeing back in 1989 if you were level with the last defender you were offside, they then changed it to make it you were onside if you were level.

“So there have been changes in law over time, and always with the aim of benefitting the attacking tea,m and assistants implement offside with the benefit of doubt going to attacking team.

“Now with VAR, the fact you can check something to really fine detail means the benefit that is being given by onfield officials, which was previously accepted if it was close to the naked eye, has been taken away now. Changing the law would readdress that a little bit.”

Webb also said he expects referees in the Premier League to start using pitchside monitors more often.

He added: “We prefer to send to the screen every time. The feedback we’ve had from the fans and the clubs, is that is what they would prefer to see. The Premier League went in this season with the view the screen wasn’t something they wanted to use. They wanted to be more rapid.

“They’ll keep reviewing it and they’ll decide if that’s still the methodology they want to use or, with the feedback, whether they want to use it more often.”

As reported in The Times, moves to persuade Ifab to allow temporary substitutes for up to ten minutes while players are checked for concussion look likely to fail.

A different plan backed by the FA and Premier League for an extra permanent substitute for suspected concussion cases may also struggle as Fifa is concerned that would be abused by managers wanting to make extra changes. Ifab may however allow trials of different concussion substitute systems to take place.