IFAB will debate 25-N to implement automatic offside

The International Board will hold its annual business meeting on November 25. In her several determining points for the future of football will be debated and could be approved. One of them would be the tests in official matches of the automatic offside in the VAR or the possibility that each competition decides whether to use three or five substitutions per match.

In late October, IFAB’s expert panel met to discuss various possibilities for rule changes. Now, it is the turn of the annual business meeting as a prelude to the General Assembly on March 4-5. This November 27 It could give the green light to try one of the great revolutions expected in VAR in official matches: the automatic offside. It is a system (Hawk-Eye, the VAR provider company has already developed it) that instantly detects which player is in a forward position, is based on tracking the players on the field and is capable of setting the line with a exceptional precision in seconds. If given the green light, it could be tested for the first time at the February Club World Cup and approved for use at the Qatar World Cup at the March Assembly.

At next week’s meeting the tests of a VAR Light (more minimalist) will be discussed to be implemented in competitions with less economic power (such as in women’s football). It is also proposed to leave the permanent option that the competitions decide to use five changes per game and not the usual three that were carried out before the pandemic (the five substitutions have been implemented during these three seasons due to the saturation of matches that the calendar has had as a result of football being stopped for almost four months in 2020 ).

They did not like the idea raised by CONMEBOL to extend the rest time between the first and second half of a match. The South American confederation proposed extending it from 15 to 25 minutes. “Several members shared their concerns, in particular in relation to the possible negative impact on the well-being and safety of players resulting from a longer period of inactivity,” the experts opined on the measure.