Van Basten: Try to abolish the offside rule, and football will be more exciting

Van Basten, who currently serves as technical director at FIFA, said in an interview with Sky Sports that he felt that the cancellation of the offside rule would be a good thing for football and could eliminate a lot of controversy caused by offside. Van Basten also said that even if the offside rule is abolished, teams can still think of ways to make football exciting.

Van Basten said: "I'm still on the sideline rule because I don't think it's a good rule. In my opinion, at least we can try not to offside rules how the game will turn out. I believe that the game would have been more exciting without the offside rule. ”

"Football is an attractive sport, but I still feel that we still have a lot to do to make football more attractive and interesting, and that's what we have to do."

"In the current game, you can often see players procrastinating for time, but this is not what the fans want to see. We need to do something about it. A lot of times, fans don't appreciate any wonderful content at all, which is not a good thing for football games. ”

Speaking about VAR, Van Basten went on to say: "I am disappointed by this use of VAR now. There has been discussion within FIFA, but it has not been made public. ”

Van Basten also said that the introduction of a timeout rule in basketball games could be considered, saying: "I think it's good for football and we have to start doing something." Football is still a great sport and we need to make it fairer and more exciting. ”

Van Basten then went on to talk about the idea of abolishing the offside rule: "(If the offside rule is canceled) the team will also find a way to deal with it. In the absence of offside rules, defensive players retreat deeper. Defensive players may keep pulling back in the back for fear of being punched through their own defensive line by the other side, and they'll feel like you can't pass the ball behind us. ”

"But if you retreat too deeply, it gets very crowded inside the penalty area and the goalkeeper's line of sight becomes very poor. Therefore, the teams will also realize that it is not a good solution to keep cowering behind. ”

"The end result could be that the goalkeeper wants everyone out of the box. Perhaps because of this, it becomes so interesting to cancel the offside rule. If attacking players are not restricted by offside rules, they can wait behind defensive players for opportunities and the chances of scoring goals in the game will become more numerous. Of course, this will also become more difficult for defensive players. ”

"On the other hand, when you're defending, if there's no offside rule, your team can always have one or two players out of the defensive zone, so that when you grab the ball, you can quickly pass the ball to the striker who is waiting on the other end to attack. It also means that attacking teams will be more careful when attacking, because at that time, the range of the stadium will also become larger. ”

"When the available space on the pitch becomes larger, the ball carrier will have more options in front of them when they hold the ball. Coaches also have to find ways to maximize the use of space as much as possible. ”

'The problem now is that we do have the offside rule, but too often we talk about not the quality of the game, but the more offside the ball is, the less offside.

"If there is no offside rule, then the ensuing offside controversy will disappear." Without offside rules, teams will come up with other ways to make the game exciting. I'm interested in that idea, and it would be interesting if I could give it a try. ”

"I'm sure people will find a way to make football better."

(Editor: Yao Fan)