The Netherlands plans to remove offside in amateur games

In a world of football where there is a growing trend towards unification of criteria, the Netherlands is proposing changes to a rule as inherent to the sport as offside. According to the Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the offside position could soon no longer be used in amateur games.

The reason behind this possible adaptation of the rules is the increase in aggression and fights after controversial decisions in the lower levels of football in the Netherlands. This application would take place in matches that do not have professional referees and are run by members of the clubs.

The KNVB said that 1,864 matches were stopped for assaults, 11 per cent more than the previous year and 58 per cent more than the growth in these undesirable events over the last five years. "It is true that this is a relatively small number for the 780,000 matches that take place annually, but we are not going to trivialise the figure," explained KNVB director Jan Dirk van der Zee.

According to ‘The Athletic’, the problem of refereeing abuse has become a regular problem in recent years and not only in the Netherlands, as England has also had to deal with aggression and even considered deducting points from clubs whose players or fans abuse referees.

"We have a problem and we want to eradicate it. We don't rule out one day stopping the use of assistant referees for those matches where there are no professional referees," said Van der Zee.