Wenger’s Law could lead to ‘ludicrous scorelines’, says alarmed club chief

The club technical chief said: “Technology also allows goals that would have been ruled out by an assistant referee’s mistake. If we shift the advantage so drastically in favour of the attacker we could end up with ludicrous scorelines. Why are we trying to fix something that isn’t broken?”

The three highest-scoring seasons in the Premier League were 2022-23 (1,084 goals, 2.85 per game), 2023-24 (1,246, 3.27 per game) and 2024-25 (1,115, 2.93 per game). The lowest season was 2006-07, when 931 goals were scored, 2.45 per game.

Uefa and the four British FAs are expected to oppose Fifa’s push for what has become known as “Wenger’s Law”. The Premier League’s offside technology also allows 5cm tolerance to the attacker, but Fifa is not a fan of such a measure.

Former Blair adviser joins regulator brains trust

The new independent football regulator (IFR) has appointed three advisers to provide insight and contacts from the point of view of the Premier League, FA and EFL.

Bill Bush, a former executive director of the Premier League and one-time special adviser to Tony Blair, is one of the trio, alongside David Davies, who spent many years in a similar role at the FA, and the ex-Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh, who was also an EFL director.

The IFR has already begun asking clubs for information to go into its first “State of the Game” report which is being compiled by its economics team and is expected to be published later this year. It will encompass financial details including TV revenues, player wages and agents’ fees.

‘No thanks, Nigel’ — Sky presenters criticise Reform UK ad

Reform UK’s use of Sky Sports’ transfer deadline day coverage to celebrate Robert Jenrick’s defection from the Tories has not gone down well with some of the broadcaster’s presenters.

The video on Reform’s social media platforms used numerous clips from Sky, and its presenter Dan Bardell responded saying: “I don’t want to be associated with Nigel Farage, can I be removed please?”

Sky Sports declined to comment.

Wembley fiasco prompts law change

Tailgating is on course to become a criminal offence this year and a private members’ bill passed through the House of Lord’s — it now just needs Royal Assent.

The bill, which has been supported by the FA, comes off the back of the inquiry by Baroness Casey of Blackstock into the security shambles at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley — held in 2021 because of Covid — where hundreds of ticketless fans followed others through electronic turnstiles.

Offenders will be subject to football banning orders under the new law.

Home secretary blasts under-fire force

West Midlands Police should not only feel embarrassed by poor research relating to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans — their evidence for an away supporters’ ban at Aston Villa included an AI-generated report of a match between the Israeli side and West Ham United which never occurred.

The home secretary Shabana Mahmood this week also castigated the force for only “speaking to Dutch police following a game in which there had been fan violence, while failing to speak to police in other countries — Greece, Ukraine and Denmark — where Maccabi Tel Aviv had played more recently, and where things had gone more peacefully.”

None of the Israeli club’s matches against Ukrainian sides in the last three seasons have been in Ukraine — they were played in Lublin, Poland.

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