Paris (AFP)

The offside could be signaled in an "automated way in 2022", at the time of the World Cup organized in Qatar, suggested Tuesday Arsène Wenger, director of the development of world football at Fifa, without revealing the modalities of a such technological advance.

"There is a good chance that the offside will be automated in 2022," the former Arsenal coach said during a press meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

"I am kept in secrecy, but it will be the next of the big evolutions of the arbitration", explained the French leader, who spoke upstream of the Days of the arbitration, which will take place from October 20, and of which he is the godfather.

While offside decisions are sometimes taken today using video refereeing assistance (VAR), with referees positioned in front of live screens, Wenger therefore suggests that football can move on to video refereeing. higher speed in the intervention of technology to resolve contentious situations.

This change was already in the pipeline for Fifa, which announced in June 2020 that it was considering "to develop semi-automated technology to signal offside, in order to provide the VAR with additional information that will simplify decision-making. of the referee and optimize the analysis of the images ".

The schedule for this project should therefore accelerate in view of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (21 November-18 December).

In March, another evolution of the judgment of these phases of play was brought by Arsène Wenger.

He then proposed to Ifab, the body which governs the laws of the game, an adaptation of the offside rule by excluding cases where "a part of the body with which the attacker can score" remains in a lawful position. .

The idea is to "make football more attractive" by promoting the attack, and to take into account the more precise assessment of situations allowed by the VAR, had specified the president of Fifa Gianni Infantino, even if no experimentation on this point is not programmed for the moment.

- The biennial World, an "emotional" subject -

Regarding his proposal to organize the World Cup every two years, which he has been carrying in the name of Fifa for several weeks, Arsène Wenger explained "to be open" and "to understand the reluctance, because there is an aspect emotional "around this tournament, historically organized every four years.

After the announcement of such a project, many voices in world football have risen to protest against an increase in the frequency of the competition, from UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin to Blues coach Didier Deschamps, including Managing Director of the German Football Association, Oliver Bierhoff.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino talks with his director of football development Arsène Wenger (left) at Al-Janoub stadium in Al Wakrah, September 7, 2021 KARIM JAAFAR AFP / Archives

"The reform I am proposing is part of a reform of the calendar. I want to reduce the number of qualifying matches," argued Arsène Wenger.

"If the prestige is linked to the distance between the competitions, it would be necessary to organize the World Cup every eight years", quipped the Alsatian, reaffirming that "we could have a big competition every year", the World Cup alternating with continental tournaments like the Euro or the Copa America, "with 25 days of rest guaranteed behind" to preserve the players already subjected to infernal rates.

A full report must be published by Fifa in November, before a "global summit" by the end of the year which could decide on this reform.

© 2021 AFP