Red cards, VAR and offside laws facing Ifab review

When a goalscoring opportunity is denied at a meeting on Tuesday, football’s lawmakers will consider expanding the scope of the red card’s scope.

However, Arsene Wenger’s “daylight” offside proposal will likely be replaced with a different, fairer option for defenses.

Goalkeeper tactical timeouts, time-wasting and video assistant referee (VAR) tweaks are among other items on the agenda.

The International Football Association Board’s (Ifab) annual business meeting in London will be the first step toward any changes to the rules that will apply to the domestic leagues and the Fifa World Cup in the upcoming season.

The annual general meeting in Cardiff on February 28th is the last step in the process for approval.

The Ifab board is comprised of world govering body Fifa and the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The FAs each have one vote at the meeting in February, and Fifa casts a block of four. A law needs to be modified by six votes.

Changes come into effect from 1 July. They can be applied earlier by leagues that begin new calendar-year seasons before this date, such as the World Cup.

What is up for discussion is listed below.

A defender can currently only be sent off (Dogso) if the victim is through on goal and has an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

The Ifab suggests expanding this to include the attacker’s teammates.

The wording “location and number of attackers” could be added to the considerations for Dogso.

This rule should also apply to fast counter-attacking teams, for instance.

If the player who was fouled had a chance to score, Dogso might have won next season if they could have passed to their team-mate.

There is also a proposal to remove a yellow card shown to a player who commits a Dogso offence when advantage is played and a goal is scored.

For instance, Mohamed Salah was struck down by Leon Bailey at Aston Villa last season when the Liverpool international was passing the ball. Darwin Nunez, the scorer, received the ball.

There has been a lot of talk about Wenger’s “daylight” offside law.

The former Arsenal manager’s suggestion is that you are not offside if “any part of your body is on the same line as the defender.”

Given the goalkeeper’s customary positioning, there must be a complete gap between the attacker and the opposing player, who is also known as the last defender.

Yet the discussion on Tuesday is going to be about “torso” offside.

The upper body would be used to determine offside rather than the head and feet.

Wenger’s concept appears to have been slammed because it gives the attacker too much leverage.

It is regarded as the modern game’s scourge. A goalkeeper goes to ground off the ball and play is stopped. The technical area is where the ten outfielders make their way for a team discussion.

The goalkeeper steps up as soon as the coach has received his new instructions. There is nothing a referee can do about it.

A coach frequently uses it when their team is struggling, or when a player has been dismissed and needs to reorganize.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, the keeper for Manchester City, was accused by Leeds United manager Daniel Farke in November of pretending to be injured to “bend the rules.”

An outfield player who has treatment must leave the field for 30 seconds.

The Ifab may have to force a coach to fire an outfield player in place because the same logic cannot be applied to goalkeepers.

Some people object to it because it assumes a goalkeeper is lying when they might actually be hurt.

The Ifab accepts something has to be done so it is likely to be trialled at lower levels next season and the results evaluated.

However, it might get longer if you believe 30 seconds is too much.

Fifa trialed players at the Arab Cup last month who received medical attention and were required to play for two minutes before being tested.

It is not a new idea, though, and has existed in Major League Soccer in the United States for the last two years.

With a few exceptions, players who go down for more than 15 seconds, remain on the floor, and receive treatment must remain awake for two minutes.

The idea of reviewing corners was rejected at the Ifab’s football advisory panels’ meeting in October. There’s a concern that it will take too long. It is a view shared across the game, apart from at Fifa.

Fifa believes that it has the resources to evaluate every corner before it is taken, not just those that lead to goals.

Fifa predicts that a corner check will be carried out before teams start training, saving valuable time from the correct decision being made.

So the game’s world governing body is petitioning for special dispensation to review corners at this summer’s World Cup. The approval is likely to be obtained.

However, this causes a conflict between Fifa and the rest of the Ifab board, which is ultimately unfavorable.

Fifa took full control of VAR from the Ifab in 2020 but it still needs the approval of the Ifab board to make changes.

If Fifa manages to pass this, it might consider other factors. Pierluigi Collina, the head of the referees, backs the idea that mistakes should be fixed as soon as possible. And that includes an incorrect yellow card generally.

Second yellow cards received greater support. There are some rumors that players who have been sent off will receive VAR reviews.

The advisory panels placed “a particular focus on further measures to improve the flow of play and minimise interruptions and time lost”.

One thing, the time taken on throw-ins and goal-kicks, was another aspect, just like goalkeepers going down for stoppages.

If a countdown is over, the proposal would turn possession over to the opposition.

It follows the success of adding an eight-second limit for goalkeepers holding the ball.

A referee could use the goalkeeper’s law as a genuine deterrent, much like the goalkeeper’s law.

Therefore, if a keeper takes too long a goal-kick, the opposition will get the ball and kick off would be a corner.

This will need trials in lower levels of football first so don’t expect to see it at the World Cup or in domestic football next season.

The Ifab will also consider enforcing a new substitutes MLS regulation.

It had been covered by tape but could not be taken out.

No allowances are made in FA regulations, which state that “every piece of jewelry is forbidden and must be removed.”

The football and technical advisory panels deliberated the situation in October, thankfully for Cascarino.

It covers a player who has accessories or jewellery that cannot be removed, for instance permanently attached to the body.

The Ifab will approve some recent temporary changes to be added to the laws permanently.

The “only the captain” rules for when talking to the referee, as well as the clarification for “double touch” penalties.

That means that a player’s penalty is retaken rather than a free-kick to the opponent if they accidentally touch the ball twice.