The 2025 soccer year was also marked by numerous, sometimes lengthy VAR interruptions due to the review of close offside decisions. FIFA President Gianni Infantino is now bringing a possible rule change into play.
Especially in the final sprint of the 2025 soccer year, numerous offside decisions in the Bundesliga caused fans and officials to shake their heads and express their lack of understanding. Whether it was Gladbach’s Frank Honorat’s supposed opening goal against RB Leipzig (final score 0-0), where the striker was standing a few millimeters in the forbidden zone, or the case of Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav, whose offside position in the match against Werder Bremen (4-0) was barely visible to the naked eye. In both cases, it took a long time before a final decision was made – and this long delay in decision-making bothered many.
Interruptions to be reduced
Now FIFA President Gianni Infantino has brought a further development of the offside rule into play, which is intended to reduce interruptions of this kind “to a minimum.” “We are looking at the offside rule, which has evolved over the years and currently requires the attacker to be behind the last defender or level with them,” Infantino explained, adding that “in the future, the attacker may have to be completely in front of the defender” for it to be considered offside.
In other words, there would no longer be offside if only one leg or arm is in front of the last defender. The focus is therefore also on the millimeter decisions made by semi-automatic offside technology, which have been discussed several times recently in the Bundesliga.
It remains to be seen whether such a rule change would actually reduce the number of offside decisions, as it can be assumed that it would then be necessary to check whether a player was behind the last defender with his entire body in the event of an offside position – or perhaps not. Essentially, the only thing that would change is the location where the offside line would be set during a review. On the other hand, it could also be argued that fewer offside decisions would be called in general, which could lead to a reduction.
However, reducing decisions of this kind through the potential rule change is not the only goal that the FIFA president has in mind. Furthermore, the rule is intended to make soccer “more offensive and attractive.” The Swiss said this at the World Sports Summit in Dubai.
Further tests and analyses
The plan is not new; FIFA director Arsene Wenger has been pushing for it for some time. The issue is also on the agenda of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which is responsible for the rules of the game. In October, the IFAB advisory committee voted in favor of “further analysis and additional tests.” The next IFAB meeting is scheduled for January 20 in London.