Wenger wins again as revolution begins - new offside rule about to be imposed
Reading Time: 2min | Tue. 30.12.25. | 16:26
Forget all you knew, as the new era is just around the corner. The testing phase will start very soon
For years, Arsene Wenger has been fighting the same battle. For years, the legendary ex-Arsenal has argued that offside should only be called when an attacker gains a real, clear and total advantage - when his entire body is ahead of the defender. And for years, nothing changed.
VAR brought precision. It reduced mistakes, allowed referees to correct themselves, froze frames down to millimetres. But the rule itself remained untouched.
Until now.
FIFA is finally preparing to rewrite the offside law, and to do it exactly the way Wenger envisioned.
"Several years ago, we introduced VAR to make football fairer, to allow referees to correct mistakes seen by millions on television and tens of thousands in stadiums," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said at the World Sports Summit in Dubai.
"We will continue to improve VAR with new technologies to minimise errors. But we are also reviewing the laws of the game, thinking about how to make football more attractive and more dynamic. That includes the offside rule."
And then came the key sentence.
"In the future, it could be that an attacker must be completely ahead of the defender - with the entire body - for offside to be called. At the moment, this idea is in the testing phase."
In other words, 'Wenger's Law' is no longer a theory.
It has entered the experimental stage - the final step before reaching football’s biggest stages.
Wenger, now head of FIFA's Global Football Development department, is the driving force behind the reform. His vision aims to restore common sense, reward attacking football and finally end the era of goals ruled out by a shoulder, a toe or a knee.
But that is not all.
FIFA is also targeting lost time.
"We are working to reduce unnecessary interruptions and ensure the game flows more smoothly," Infantino added, pointing to the rule introduced this season: if a goalkeeper holds the ball for more than eight seconds, the opposition is awarded a corner.
Football is changing. Slowly, carefully, but decisively. And after years of waiting, Arsene Wenger's most radical idea may finally be about to reshape the game.
