The Canadian League is testing the idea of ​​​​Arsene Wenger offside

The Canadian Premier League is set to test Arsene Wenger’s offside rule in broad daylight.

It was presented to the International Football Association Board (IFAB) at its annual working meeting on Tuesday.

It will now move to the Annual General Meeting in Cardiff on February 28. If approved, the trial will begin when the Canadian Premier League begins in April.

Wenger, who has been FIFA’s head of global football development since 2019, suggests there should be a complete gap between the striker and the opposing player from second to last – effectively the last defender, given the goalkeeper’s usual positioning.

Critics have suggested that offside in broad daylight would give too much of an advantage to the attacking team.

“We have to try the radical solution first and see if we need to come back from that,” Wenger said as he left Tuesday’s meeting in London.

It was first proposed six years ago, but until now there have been only limited trials in youth football.

If the trial continues in Canada, its results will be presented to the International Football Association Board (IFAB) at the end of the year. If successful, the law could potentially change worldwide for the 2027-2028 European season.

Other leagues will be invited to participate in the experiment. The IFAB will likely want to conduct multiple tests to show the power of the change, especially since the Canadian league does not have video assistant referees (VAR).

Before the EU Council meeting, it was expected that “daylight” offside trials would be abandoned in favor of “torso” offside, which ignores the arms and feet when passing judgment.

However, there has been opposition to this idea and it is now unlikely to go to trials.