Marco van Basten has suggested that offside rule be scrapped, as the Dutch legend insist football would be better without the law.
During Van Basten’s working tenure as the technical director of FIFA between 2016 and 2018, offside was just one aspect of the game that has troubled the 56-year-old.
In 2017, the former AC Milan star had laid out plans to rid football of the offside rule in a bid to preserve the sport as the world’s most popular game.
He reasoned that scrapping the rule would allow for more scoring chances, making the game more enjoyable.
“I am still very curious about the offside rule because I am convinced that it is not a good rule,” Van Basten tells Sky Sports. “At least I would like to trial it to show that football is also possible without the offside rule. I am convinced that football would be better without it.
“Football is a fantastic game but I still think that we have to do much more to make it better, more spectacular, more interesting, more exciting. We have to work on that.”
Meanwhile, scrapping offside rule from soccer would affect game play, as attackers will now be allowed to occupy spaces in behind defences. Van Basten is certain that teams would adapt to the change of rule.
“Teams would find a way of playing without it,’ he insisted.
“If you do away with the offside line then the defence will drop deeper. They will say that you cannot get behind us because they will be afraid of the opponents getting in behind.
“But if you go too far back then the 18-yard box is going to become a melee and the goalkeeper will not be able to see anything, so teams will know it is not the solution.
“On the other hand, when you are defending, if there is no offside, you can always have one or two players far away so that when you get the ball you can put it to your forwards in the other half.
“The problem now is that we do have offside and how often are we talking about the offside decisions? A lot.
“If you do not have offside you have a lot less problems and the teams will still find other solutions to have a good game that will be just as spectacular as it is now but without this bad rule. I am still very interested in it. It would just be nice to test it.
“I am sure football would find a way to become even more interesting.”
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