In cooperation with FIFA, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) will test an alternative offside Law at professional level when its 2026 season gets under way on 4 April.

The initiative follows discussions at the 140th Annual General Meeting of The International Football Association Board (The IFAB), where broader measures to enhance match tempo and reduce time-wasting were approved and updates were given on ongoing developments in offside-related technologies and trials.

The trial, led by FIFA and approved by The IFAB, will test the so-called “daylight” principle, a shift designed to favour attacking play. “This is an important pilot,” said FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger. “By testing this new interpretation in a professional competition, we can better understand its impact, including in terms of improving clarity and the flow of the game and promoting attacking play. We look forward to analysing the results of the trial phase. We thank the Canadian Premier League and the Canadian Soccer Association for their willingness to support FIFA with this pilot and for providing their competition.”

Under the revised approach, an attacking player will be considered onside if at least one part of their body that can legitimately be used to score (i.e. not the hands/arms) is in line with (or behind) the second-to-last defender. A player will only be ruled offside if there is a gap – or “daylight” – between themselves and the defender. In effect, attackers must be fully beyond the second last defending player to be penalised. By introducing a clearer visual threshold, the trial is aimed at restoring a greater attacking advantage and boosting the flow of matches.

As part of the trial, the CPL will also roll out Football Video Support (FVS), the accessible and cost-effective video replay system for key refereeing calls. FVS does not use dedicated video match officials and therefore does not automatically check all match-changing incidents. Instead, the onus falls on the two head coaches, who are allowed to make a limited number of review requests per match when they feel there has been a clear and obvious error in match-changing incidents such as goal/no goal, penalty/no penalty, direct red cards or mistaken identity. In addition, the fourth official checks every goal for any offence by the attacking team in the build-up to the goal.

To make a review request, the coaches will be required to give a card to the fourth official immediately after the relevant incident to avoid unnecessary delays and to conform with the Laws of the Game, which do not allow a decision to be changed once play has restarted.

FVS is not a replacement for the video assistant referee (VAR) system, but it nevertheless empowers referees with critical decision-making support.