Football Lawmakers Set To Trial Arsene Wenger's Idea To Replace Throw-Ins

Football lawmakers have agreed to authorise trials of 'kick-ins' to replace throw-ins –– a possible rule change that could have huge implications on the game as we know it.

FIFA's chief of global football development, Arsene Wenger, caused huge debate in 2020 when he revealed his idea to change the throw-in rule.

In a bid to make the game "more spectacular and quicker", the former Arsenal manager believes the game needs to speed up to preserve the attention of younger generations.

And in an interview with L'Equipe in 2020, the Frenchman, who claimed the two big time-wasters in football at the moment are throw-ins and free-kicks, backed up his plan with statistics.

He said: "I would like to change the throw-in rule: five minutes before the end, a throw-in for you should be an advantage, but in these situations you are facing 10 outfield players in play, whilst you only have nine.

"Stats show that in eight out of 10 of those throw-in situations, you lose the ball. In your half of the pitch, you should have the possibility to take a kick instead."

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Over a year later and the International FA Board [IFB] discussed the idea of trialling 'kick-ins' at their Annual General Meeting in Qatar on Monday.

They also brought up a number of other trials that could take place in the near future.

A statement on the IFAB website read: "Other trials such as explaining certain refereeing decisions during a game, a potentially fairer calculation of playing time, and kick-ins were also discussed.

"The AGM was clear that these and any other trials require permission and will be supervised by The IFAB and FIFA."

The so-called "fairer calculation of playing time" may include the introduction of a stop clock, so time can be paused whenever the ball is not in play.

In terms of what else was discussed in the meeting, members decided to increase the maximum number of named substitutes listed on the team sheet from 12 to 15 at the discretion of the competition organiser. 

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Wenger opened up on the four drastic rule changes he would like to see in football, with the offside rule being one of those brought up by the former Arsenal boss.

"For the moment, you are offside if a part of your body that you can score with sits ahead of the body of a defender," he told L'Equipe.

"I would like it to be that there is no offside so long as a (single) body part which a player can score with is in line with the defender. This could be too much of an advantage for an attacker, because that obliges the defenders to play higher up."

The Frenchman also mentioned in-swinging corners and playing a free-kick to yourself in his plans.

"We are also considering other things: an in-swinging corner that goes out of play and comes back in could be made valid, this would create new goal scoring opportunities," he added.

"There is also the option of quickly playing a free-kick to yourself."

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Thoughts on the idea of 'kick-ins' being introduced to football?

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