Arsene Wenger's 'daylight offside' rule to be trialled in Canadian Premier League

Martin Macdonald

• 31 Mar 2026 11:01 CDT
• 3 min read

News

FIFA's controversial 'daylight offside' rule is set to be trialled in the Canadian Premier League, starting on 4 April.

The decision follows discussions at the 140th Annual General Meeting of The International Football Association Board (The IFAB) in which the priorities were to reduce time wasting and increase the tempo of matches.

Within the 'daylight offside' rule, there needs to be a clear gap between the defender and attacker in order for the latter to be deemed offside. This means that even if a small section of the attacker's body is in line with the defender, they will remain onside.

The ruling is controversial and its detractors believe it gives far too big an advantage to attackers.

“This is an important pilot,” said FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger.

“By testing this new interpretation in a professional competition, we can better understand its impact, including in terms of improving clarity and the flow of the game and promoting attacking play. We look forward to analysing the results of the trial phase. We thank the Canadian Premier League and the Canadian Soccer Association for their willingness to support FIFA with this pilot and for providing their competition.”

The specific body part that is in line with the defender needs to be one which can be used to score a goal, so if a hand or arm is in line with the defender, that will be called as offside.

There will also be a Football Video Support that will be used by head coaches who want specific incidents to be reviewed. These requests will be limited.

FIFA confirmed: As part of the trial, the CPL will also roll out Football Video Support (FVS), the accessible and cost-effective video replay system for key refereeing calls. FVS does not use dedicated video match officials and therefore does not automatically check all match-changing incidents.

"Instead, the onus falls on the two head coaches, who are allowed to make a limited number of review requests per match when they feel there has been a clear and obvious error in match-changing incidents such as goal/no goal, penalty/no penalty, direct red cards or mistaken identity. In addition, the fourth official checks every goal for any offence by the attacking team in the build-up to the goal."

The Canadian Premier League is hoping to become more mainstream, akin to to Major League Soccer in the United States. Officials hope the adoption of the controversial new offside rule will put the CPL into the worldwide football consciousness.

The CPL's CEO, James Johnson, said: "It's a league that is still young, but it's maturing very quickly.

"We like to do things that are different. We want to create some debates and also make sure the CPL is at the heart of a global football conversation, because we're innovative and that's how we want to be seen.

"We want to contribute to world football. And when you have someone like Arsene Wenger, who's leading football discussions, we want to support that.

"And so if we can play a part we think it won't only be good for Canadian soccer, but also for world football, then I am all for it."

The first fixture to include the new offside rule will be between Forge and Ottawa on Saturday, 4 April.

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