What we learned from Canadian Premier League's first use of daylight offside, video challenges

Tom Weber

• 6 Apr 2026 20:00 CDT
• 3 min read

Analysis

The first matchday of the new Canadian Premier League season is in the books, and it was a historic one.

While there was some action on the pitch - Lorenzo Callegari scored one of the best free kicks you will ever see for Halifax - all eyes were on the CPL for a different reason.

The opening weekend, which only saw three matches take place, was more about the referees than the players. That is because the CPL is trialling both Arsene Wenger's "daylight offside" rule and a challenge system known as Football Video Support (FVS).

The latter has already been tested in leagues in Malta, Italy and Spain, and it has been hailed as a potential game-changer. England legend Gary Lineker is a well-known proponent of a challenge system and believes that it is the only way to fix the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

The former, though, is a much more controversial change. Wenger feels that his "daylight offside" rule will make the game more exciting by giving attackers more leeway before they are deemed offside. Detractors, however, fear that it will give too great an advantage to forwards.

What we learned from the CPL's opening weekend

So, how did the changes work out in the CPL? Well, it didn't take long for FVS to come into play. The first challenge occurred just 20 minutes into the season opener between Forge and reigning champions Atletico Ottawa.

Ottawa keeper Tristan Crampton brought Forge striker Brian Wright down in the box, prompting referee Yusri Rudolf to point to the spot. However, Atletico boss Diego Mejia challenged the call, believing that one of his players had been fouled in the build-up.

After review, Rudolf upheld his decision and awarded the penalty. Forge's second goal was also examined, albeit unprompted. This time, Rudolf and the fourth official, who is tasked with reviewing goals under FVS, decided to take another look to see if the ball had been handled before the goal.

Despite there seemingly being a handball, the goal was given, which caused frustration about a lack of clarity in the rules more than anything else. There also appeared to be a foul from a Forge player in the build-up, but this incident seemingly was not reviewed.

Because Meija had failed with his first challenge, he only had one more remaining and, with his team trailing, decided to use it in the second half on an innocuous play for which he wanted a penalty. Unsurprisingly, no spot kick was given.

It needlessly disrupted the game because there is simply no downside to using your spare challenge, and this is likely to be exploited going forward, with coaches able to tell the referee to look for an infraction in hopes that something can be found.

The common theme throughout the opening weekend was that FVS slowed down rather than sped up the play. Reviews took five, six minutes, with little discernible difference to VAR.

As for the new offside rule, there was no clear incident in which it actively came into play and led to a goal, but it was noticeable that some defences dropped significantly deeper on set pieces in order to avoid playing the opponent onside.

The biggest frustration from matchday one ultimately stemmed from the delay on reviews, which can hopefully just be attributed to growing pains from the implementation of a completely new system. Further use will hopefully speed up the process, while the jury remains out on "daylight offside."

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