Swedish club 'found loophole in the offside law' that prompted calls for worldwide rule change

A Swedish club have claimed to have found a loophole in the current offside law.

The offside law, which is set by football's lawmakers IFAB, has seen various changes over the years.

Its interpretation has also been adjusted by the introduction of VAR to Europe's top divisions.

Particularly in the Premier League, offside decisions were often seen to be a major talking point as the adjudication process from VAR involved an element of potential human error.

That potential has largely been removed through the introduction of semi-automated offsides, which are scheduled to be implemented before the end of 2024.

The current offside law reads: "A player is in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched by a team-mate; is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by the first point of contact of the 'play' or 'touch' of the ball should be used."

Last year, Swedish club Torns argued that an offside should be called at the first point of contact, rather than when the ball is released to a team-mate.

They effectively claimed that, if a player makes the first contact with the ball and a player is in an onside position, they can release the ball in 'slow motion' to a point where the player is in an offside position - but still deemed offside.

The club then produced a video to attempt to illustrate how their theory works - which you can see below.

In the video, the club's manager asks one of his players, Adam Olafsson, to place the ball on his foot.

He then asks an attacker to run beyond the defence, while the ball remains on Olafsson's foot.

The argument is that, rather than the attacker being offside from Olafsson's subsequent pass, he would have been deemed onside from the first point of contact, and therefore would still be onside even after running beyond the defence.

Subsequently, Torns posted to their official Twitter account to confirm that they had been in contact with IFAB about a potential rule change.

They claimed IFAB's response to be as follows: "This is amusing and interesting! In terms of the 'spirit' of the Law, this is obviously offside and, in terms of the Law itself, the 'balancing' of the ball on the foot is a different 'play' from the movement which gives the ball momentum to move.

"We will review if the wording of Law 11 needs changing in light of this 'theoretical' situation."

There have been no changes to the 2024/25 offside law to reflect this apparent 'loophole', with the law reading: "The first point of contact of the 'play' or 'touch' of the ball should be used."