National coaches press FIFA to change offside law

National football coaches meeting in Berlin this week pressed FIFA and UEFA to consider changes to the offside law and for referees to be allowed greater discretion on red card decisions.

"I think the message was that a vast majority have trouble with the interpretation of the offside rule," UEFA Technical Director Andy Roxburgh said at the end of a three-day conference to take stock of the game after this summer's World Cup.

He said some coaches had urged changes to the passive offside rule which says the referee should not blow unless a player is actively involved in the flow of play.

"You have some who like the status quo and some who like the old strict interpretation of the offside rule," he said. "There were strong opinions."

Roxburgh said there were also concerns that players who are given automatic red cards for taking down opponents in the box were being too heavily sanctioned.

"Right now a foul in the penalty box brings three sanctions - a penalty, a red card and a suspension of the player for the next match," he said.

"The majority (of the coaches) feel the referee should have the option to give a yellow card and a penalty."

Roxburgh said football authorities had come away from the meeting - the first-ever joint technical conference between UEFA and FIFA - with a long list of proposals they would now have to study.

In addition to a discussion of the laws, the meeting also touched on the defensive nature of play during the World Cup in Germany, which produced one of the lowest goal totals on record.

France coach Raymond Domenech, who often had Thierry Henry as his lone striker during the tournament, defended his tactics, saying it was not important how many forwards were playing at a given time but how the team as a whole performed.

"Perhaps the strikers didn't always play spectacularly, but they played within the team, creating space and tying down opponents," he said.