Beard Liberation Front
6th March
‘Wenger’s Law’ on football offsides may end VAR beard discrimination
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it believes that the new ‘Wenger’s Law’ on football offside decisions may have the important impact of stopping VAR discrimination against players with beards.
The rule change is currently being trialled in China.
At the moment if any part of a player that could score a goal-and that clearly includes the beard-is found to be in front of an opponent than they are judged to be offside.
Under the new Wenger’s Law if any part of the player that score a goal is level with an opponent they will be on-side. Since the beard will invariably be one aspect of the player that is at the forefront of their presence near goal, this will mean that a beard can no longer lead to a player being offside.
The campaigners note that there could still be some scope for VAR ambiguity however. Under Wenger’s Law there must be clear daylight between a player and an opponent for them to be judged offside. However if a player’s beard appears to be close to an opponent while the rest of them is not there may well still be an issue.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Arsene Wenger has never worn a beard but we think on balance this change to the offside rule may help hirsute footballers.
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