A seemingly obscure query from a Swedish third-tier club has led to a significant clarification of the offside law by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), football's law-making body. Torns IF, a club from Stångby, near Malmö, demonstrated how a loophole in the wording of the law could be exploited, prompting IFAB to act.
The issue arose from the interpretation of when an offside assessment should be made. Torns IF questioned whether a player could circumvent the offside rule by maintaining continuous contact with the ball, for example, by balancing it on their foot, before releasing it to a teammate who had moved into an offside position in the interim.
The club cleverly dissected Law 11, which pertains to offside, highlighting the phrase: "A player is in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by the first point of contact of the 'play' or 'touch' of the ball should be used." They argued that if the "first point of contact" occurred while the attacker was onside, they should remain onside even if they subsequently moved beyond the last defender before the ball was actually played.
To illustrate their point, Torns IF even created a video demonstrating the "Torn pass." In the video, a player balances the ball on their foot while a teammate runs beyond the defensive line. The argument was that because the attacker was onside at the initial "point of contact" (when the ball was placed on the foot), they should be deemed onside even when the ball was eventually released, despite now being in an offside position.
This interpretation, while technically within the existing wording of the law, clearly violated the spirit of the offside rule, which is designed to prevent players from gaining an unfair advantage by lurking in offside positions.
IFAB recognized the potential for exploitation and has moved to clarify the law. The amendment to the text aims to remove any ambiguity and ensure that the offside assessment is made at the point when the ball is played or touched with the intention of passing it to a teammate, not during a period of sustained contact where the ball is merely being controlled.
While this specific clarification addresses the "Torn pass" scenario, the broader debate surrounding the offside law continues. Arsène Wenger, FIFA's Head of Global Development, has been a vocal proponent of further changes to the offside rule, suggesting that an attacker should only be considered offside if their entire body is beyond the last defender. This proposal, which is currently being trialed, aims to encourage attacking play and reduce the number of marginal offside calls that have become increasingly prevalent with the use of VAR (Video Assistant Referee). These trials are being conducted in various leagues and tournaments to assess the impact of the proposed change on the game. Any potential rule change would need to be approved by IFAB after consulting with football stakeholders.
Other changes are being trialed such as referees making announcements on speakers after VAR checks during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, and FIFA testing body cameras for referees.
