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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Connor Dunn

Major VAR rule change considered for offside decisions that Liverpool and Everton will love

Decisions made by the Video Assistant Referee around offsides this season have been heavily criticised and now time limits could be brought in to help the flow of the game.

Marginal offside calls, whereby only a player's upper arm is ahead of the last defender, are the biggest cause of concern.

Everyone involved in the game, aside from those officiating, has been left baffled during such incidents at times this season with the time taken to make those calls under fierce scrutiny.

Kieran O’Connor, the president of the Football Association of Wales who chaired the annual general meeting of the law-making International Football Association Board (IFAB) last month, believes there are huge benefits to VAR but that common sense must play a part.

"With VAR now we’re coming down to bootlaces almost, and there has to be a degree of common sense," O’Connor, a former referee, told PA.

"It’s not an easy area but it’s one we need to keep looking at and keep tweaking and eventually we’ll get there.

"Should you put a time limit on it? Possibly. It wasn’t discussed at the IFAB meeting but it’s been discussed in football more widely. If some part of the body is in front but the rest is behind (the defender), should it be allowed?

"IFAB are in touch (with football).

"The laws are always going to need reviewing but I think it’s the right body and I think it’s done reasonably well over the last couple of years.

"VAR works, it’s sometimes a little slow but I think that will come in time.

"FIFA are looking at what I call the ‘Tesco Value’ version (of VAR) which will come even further down the chain and make it financially available to more leagues.

"That can only help referees. They are only human and they give what they see, and the pace of the game is so quick."

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