Cashcraft Asset Management Ltd
2A,
SPORTS NEWS Home continuation 5
FIFA MAY SCRAP OFFSIDE RULE
Football governing body, FIFA, was
considering scrapping the offside rule, the Times of London reported yesterday.
According to the newspaper, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has discussed what
would be the most radical rule change in the sport for decades. Blatter has
apparently spoken to the President of the International Hockey Federation,
Leandro Nagre, about how hockey abolished the rule in the 1990s.
"He asked me a lot of questions about it and how successful
it was, although he never offered an opinion, so it was difficult to judge what
football might do. But he did seem very interested in how we had implemented
it," Negre said.
The offside rule in hockey was abolished in 1998 after a trial
period two years earlier, a move that has been credited with making the game
more free-flowing and exciting as a spectacle. Veteran BBC sports commentator,
Barry Davies, firmly believed that it would be a great move for football.
"I would love to see it given a trial in the lower
leagues," he said. "It would probably take a long time for players to
adjust. It's also very demanding physically, but I was amazed at how quickly
hockey adapted and there's no doubt the game is better for it."
Davies believes that the abolition of offside is not the only rule
football could borrow from hockey. He suggested that the green card - which leads
to a two-minute in the sin bin for players - would also work well.
Source:
Guardian
Newspapers