Juventus coach Max Allegri believes the two ridiculously tight offside calls in the game with Fiorentina suggest football must change the rules. ‘We can’t have goals disallowed for hair being offside.’
The introduction from the second half of the Serie A season of Semi-Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT) has only exacerbated the issue.
While before some goals may well have been given the benefit of the doubt with the lines practically level, now the technology used already at the World Cup has dozens of cameras pin-pointing every part of a player’s body to get an immediate and accurate view of the scenario.
This also means that, like today with both Dusan Vlahovic and Gaetano Castrovilli, goals can be disallowed by a matter of millimetres.
FIFA are now reportedly working on a change to the offside rule that will require ‘clear light’ between players.
“I think that is the right way to go,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.
“We can’t have goals disallowed for hair being offside. We’d all have to get the same haircut as me!”
Any part of the body that a player can legally score a goal with has to be level with the opponent in order to be onside, so in the case of Vlahovic, that is his forehead.
Technology was absolutely decisive in the 1-0 Juventus victory, because not only did both teams have a goal ruled offside for the tightest of margins, but goal-line technology was also required to realise Adrien Rabiot’s header had crossed over before Pietro Terracciano’s save.