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The offside rule, which was proposed by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, would make attackers onside if their entire body is in line with the last outfield defender.

The introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR), according to Wenger, head of global development at the world’s ruling body Fifa, will give the attacker a benefit that many believe has been lost.

Wenger compared the proposed change to a similar course of action from the 1990 World Cup.

A player was deemed offside if he was level with the opponent’s last defender before the goalkeeper both before and during that tournament.

The lowest total goals scored in World Cup history was 2.21 per game on average in 1990.

Wenger recalled the rule change, saying, “It was 1990 after the World Cup in Italy, when no goals were scored.”

When you are on the same line as the defender, “we decided there is no offside.”

The striker benefits from the doubt, according to the saying. The striker did indeed have the advantage when there was a fraction.

Wenger said more trials will take place before a final decision, which could be in 2026, has been made in Italian youth football.

The International Football Association Board (Ifab), one of the sport’s legal bodies, is in charge of any changes to the offside rule.

At its annual general meeting in March, Ifab consented to additional trials being conducted by Fifa.

It states that the trials’ objectives are to determine whether they “foster attacking football and encouraging goalscoring opportunities while maintaining the game’s attractiveness.”

Any potential rule changes would only be made after Ifab’s football and technical advisory panels received input from the football industry.

Former players and referees are among the panel members who have experience in the game of football.

A number of crucial factors are tracked by custom cameras, which show whether an attacking player’s body was beyond the ball’s last defender at the precise moment the ball was played.

The Premier League adopted the technology in April, after it was first used in elite-level football in England during the FA Cup in February.

Following the 1990 World Cup, the offside law was modified to include the modern back-pass rule and three points for a win as the global standard in an effort to promote attacking play.

Manager Mikel Arteta has made the disparaging claim that Arsenal won the previous two Premier League titles because they had more points at the end of those campaigns than Liverpool did when they won the title this year.

Arteta was referring to Liverpool’s recent title win over Manchester City, who had scored less points than Arsenal did when they finished second overall in the previous two campaigns.

Being in the right place at the right time is what makes winning trophies possible. Less points have been scored than we have in the previous two seasons for Liverpool. The 43-year-old smiled and said, “With the points from the previous two seasons, we have two Premier League titles.”

With three games left, Liverpool, who currently has 82 points, may still surpass Arsenal’s 89 points from last season and 84 in 2022-23.

With only four games left in April, Liverpool won the title.

After last weekend’s defeat to Bournemouth, Arsenal are 15 points adrift in second place, three points behind Manchester City. On Sunday, they take on Liverpool at Anfield.

In order to reach the Champions League final on Wednesday (20:00 BST), they will attempt to resurrect a 1-0 first leg deficit against Paris St-Germain to maintain their last chance of winning silverware this season.

“We’ll probably be in the right place in Paris at the right time,” he continued.

Since winning the FA Cup in Arteta’s first season in charge in 2020, they haven’t won much silverware.

The Spaniard has now reached the club’s first semi-final since 2009, but after reaching the Champions League quarter-finals last year.

According to Mikel Arteta, timing is at play in why Arsenal haven’t won as many awards as they would have liked in recent years.

By overturning a 1-0 deficit in the opening game of the Champions League against Paris St-Germain on Wednesday (20:00 BST), the Gunners will attempt to make it one last silverware win of the season.

The Spaniard argued that success comes down to being in the right place at the right time, and that Liverpool’s record-keeping allowed them to win this season’s Premier League.

“We are going to try to do it this season, but winning awards means acting at the right time and place,” Arteta said.

“Liverpool have won the title with fewer points than we have in the previous two seasons.” So we currently have two Premier League titles for the past two seasons.

“It’s possible that we will be in the right place in Paris at the right time and get that spot in the final.”

In their previous two Premier League seasons, the Gunners finished second to Manchester City, which is currently behind Liverpool, who are already defending champions.

They finished the previous campaign five points behind Pep Guardiola’s side, finishing two points behind Manchester City.

However, they are 15 points behind Liverpool, who could still surpass Arsenal’s 89 points last season and 84 in 2022-23 with 82 points and three games left.

Since winning the FA Cup in the Spaniard Arteta’s first season in charge in 2020, Arsenal have not collected any significant silverware.

However, Arteta has now reached the competition’s first semi-final since 2009 after reaching the Champions League quarter-finals last year.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison is a doubt for the start of pre-season with the serious knee injury he suffered against Bodo/Glimt last week.

BBC Sport revealed on Monday that Maddison was almost certain to miss the final weeks of this season – potentially including a Europa League final – as Tottenham determined the full extent of the injury.

That remains the case, and it is understood Maddison’s recovery time is expected to take up to three months, leaving him at risk of missing some of Spurs’ build-up to the 2025-26 campaign.

More positively, Maddison does not require surgery to repair his injured knee and if all goes according to plan with his rehabilitation, the 28-year-old will be fit for the start of next season.

The lay-off arrives as a major blow to Maddison, who has suffered suspected ligament damage.

It denies Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou a key player as the team enter the crucial climax to their season.

Although their Premier League campaign has been hugely disappointing and a bottom-half finish is certain, Tottenham are well placed to reach the Europa League final as they prepare to face Bodo/Glimt on Thursday in the semi-final second leg.

That competition offers them the chance to lift a trophy and earn a lucrative place in next season’s Champions League.

In Bob Seddon’s day, they did things differently. No televised Lions squad announcement because there was no television, no first class plane travel because there were no aeroplanes.

Captain of the wide-eyed Victorians of 1888, Seddon led the first rugby team of its kind to leave these shores and head south, not yet as the British and Irish Lions, but precursors and pioneers.

Seddon’s squad set sail for New Zealand and Australia on RMS Kaikoura. For 46 days, they travelled. Calm waters and lumpy seas. Heavy gales and dense fog. A week went by when “neither sun nor stars were seen,” he reported.

They played 19 games in New Zealand, 16 in Australia, but they still were not done. They played another 19 matches of Victorian Rules – Aussie Rules, in effect. Fifty-four contests for just more than 20 players on a tour that lasted 249 days. The chosen ones this time will play nine times in just more than a month. Blink and you will miss them.

Seddon, from Lancashire, was engaged to be married. Twenty games into the trip he drowned in the Hunter River in New South Wales. Some people do not get the Lions and call it an anachronism and an unimportant exhibition. They ask why do the Lions matter in the current age?

They matter, in part, because of folk like Bob Seddon and all the heroes and all the social history that came in his wake.

Tommy Crean, the Irishman, was a Lion in South Africa in 1896. He won a Victoria Cross in the Boer War. Alexander Todd, the Englishman, was a Lion in South Africa in 1896. He died at Ypres. Matthew Mullineux, a London clergyman, was also a Lion in 1896. He won the Military Cross during the First World War. Eric Milroy, a Scot, was a Lion in South Africa in 1910. He died at the Somme. Phil Waller, the Welshman, was also a Lion in 1910. He died at Arras.

Paddy Mayne, from County Down, was a Lion in South Africa in 1938. He won the Distinguished Service Order medal and three bars for three separate acts of heroism at war and was then awarded the Legion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre by the French government for his work in the liberation of France. He was also a founding member of the SAS.

Harry Jarman of Pontypool did not die at war. The 1910 tourist died of complications after he threw himself into the path of a runaway coal wagon at a South Wales colliery as it rattled towards some children playing in its path.

This team transcends sport. It’s a cultural phenomenon. The Lions tour to apartheid South Africa in 1974 was deeply divisive and even now there would be heated debates about the rights and wrongs of going there.

But there’s also the story of Nelson Mandela in his cell on Robben Island, listening to commentary on the radios of his wardens. When Willie John McBride’s immortals beat the Afrikaners and took the series, Mandela and his fellow political prisoners rejoiced.

When the Lions returned in 1997, players from the ’74 tour were coach, Ian McGeechan, and manager, Fran Cotton. They were greeted by Steve Tshwete, a government minister in a country that now had Mandela as president.

Tshwete, incarcerated on Robben Island with Mandela, practically moved McGeechan and Cotton to tears when he recounted his experiences of listening to those radios and hearing how they brought the Springboks to their knees.

How much did it mean to be a Lion back in the day? Players took time off work to tour. Some gave up their jobs if they could not get time off. Club members and fellow villagers chipped in to send them on their way with a few bob in their pocket because they did not get paid.

On the 1959 tour in New Zealand the great Irish prop, Syd Millar, had his overcoat stolen from his hotel room. Word reached the local press and suddenly letters with cheques came flooding in from sympathetic Kiwis.

We live in different days, thankfully. This team and these tours have endured despite bloody conflict abroad and at home, they have prospered despite having their existence threatened by the march of professionalism and an ever more crowded fixture calendar, they have survived the flak that flew after despicable violence in matches from the wild west years.

The Battle of Ballymore, the Battle of Canterbury, the Battle of Potchefstroom, the Battle of Boet Erasmus. Compelling but bleak chapters.

Doom-mongers have been proven wrong at every turn. Yes, it has become a commercial beast and the rampant hyping of the brand grates, but the essence of what makes the Lions special is strong and apparently unbreakable. The tourists have won just one series this millennium – one of six – but the fascination only grows. Brilliantly weird and utterly exhilarating, this is a unique experience, a bucket list item for fans and for every chosen player, a dream realised.

The speculation around who’s in and who’s out ends now, though. Andy Farrell and his coaches have got their men. Not everyone will agree with the names they came up with. There will be a wronged one, a lucky pick, a cause to rally round and get furious about. It was ever thus. The Lions is four nations and one team, but on announcement day, everybody is looking out for their own.

Being picked for the Lions is, and always will be, a special moment in the life of any player – many would say the most special moment – but it cannot be enough anymore. There’s a pride in being a Lion, but greatness only comes in victory.

In 1997 Jim Telfer called selection “the easy bit” in his famous speech about reaching the top of Everest. Winning was the most important thing, he told his forwards. “The ultimate.” He was right then and he’s right now.