[Saba Sports News] According to British media reports, the new offside rules promoted by Arsène Wenger will be piloted in the Canadian Premier League. It is reported that starting with the new season on April 4th, the Canadian Premier League will launch a trial of the “daylight offside” rule in cooperation with FIFA. Led by FIFA and approved by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the trial is designed to benefit attacking teams. Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, stated: “This is an important pilot project. By testing this new officiating standard in professional matches, we can better understand its impact — including improving the clarity of decisions, enhancing the fluidity of the game, and encouraging attacking play. We look forward to analyzing the results from the trial phase. We would like to thank the Canadian Premier League and Canada Soccer for supporting this FIFA pilot and making their matches available for the experiment.”
The editor believes that under the new rule, an attacking player will not be deemed offside if any part of their body that can score a goal is level with or behind the second-to-last defender. An offside call will only be made when there is a gap — the so-called “daylight” — between the attacker and the defender. In effect, an attacking player has to be completely beyond the second-to-last defender to be penalised for offside.