Silva's controversial goal leads to change in off-side rule

Chennai, January 27: Changes have been made to the off-side rule - that would have cancelled out Manchester City’s controversial goal against Aston Villa in a move which has been stated as 'face saving exercise'.

Discussions were held following Bernardo Silva's goal against Aston Villa in the Premier League tie at the Villa Park when City midfielder, Rodri came from an off-side position, behind Villa defender, Tyrone Mings’ back to steal the ball off him and set up the Portuguese International to break the deadlock for the opener in an eventual 2-0 win.

The decision to allow the goal even after consulting with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) had raised many eyebrows.

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Mings himself branded the decision as 'nonsense' in the post match conference, while his manager, Dean Smith was sent off for overstepping his mark during protests against the VAR allowed goal to the referee.

A similar incident occurred on the same night, but in the Serie A in Juventus' game against Bologna.

Cristiano Ronaldo came from an off-side position to steal the ball off the Bologna defender, passing it on to Dejan Kulusevski, who was in an onside position but the move was ruled as off-side without even consulting the VAR.

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Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL), the refereeing body were left red faced and said the goal had been allowed under a little known law that reads 'A player in an off-side position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.'

However, it has been revealed that PGMOL held a summit with the rule makers, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and the UEFA to discuss on the issue and they have reportedly agreed on a guidance that would be issued to all the referees that would see such a move and goal disallowed, if it were to happen in the future.

The rule change now states that 'Where a player in an off-side position immediately impacts on an opponent who has deliberately played the ball, the match officials should prioritise challenging an opponent for the ball, and thus the off-side offence of 'interfering with an opponent by impacting on the opponent's ability to play the ball' should be penalised’.

This means that a player repeating Rodri’s trick will now be punished in the future.