Football law chief clarifies VAR stance: 'Offside is offside'

The general secretary of football's lawmakers, the IFAB, has cleared up his comments from earlier this week which seemed to indicate the sport was implementing VAR incorrectly.

Following a festive period rife with tight offside calls in the Premier League, IFAB chief Lukas Brud said Monday the use of technology was "too forensic" and therefore ignored the "clear and obvious" principle. However, in Friday's interview with Chaled Nahar of Sportschau, relayed by ESPN's Dale Johnson, Brud said offside is an objective and rather straightforward decision.

"If the images with calibrated lines and the perpendicular line show that there is an offside position, the video assistant should continue to report," Brud said. "Even if it is only a centimeter. Offside is offside."

Johnson clarified Brud's earlier quotes shortly after his story was published.

"He was talking generally, across all leagues, that the VAR shouldn't search for an offside. It should be 'clear and obvious' that there's a possible offside. Not that the offside itself is C&O (clear and obvious)," Johnson wrote on Twitter.

Brud added Friday that there should be no "tolerance limit" or "margin of error" applied to offside decisions, and that the calls from the VAR should be made objectively and based purely on the technology available.

"The point is that the video assistant must quickly understand whether there is an offside. He should not line up every minute for every perspective," he said.

One issue with VARs' ability to make objective offside calls - to the centimeter, as Brud states - is that a standard HD camera captures 50 frames per second, while players like Manchester City's Kyle Walker can move almost 20 centimeters per frame.

Johnson also tweeted that Brud hasn't publicly offered an opinion on Premier League referees' apparent refusal to consult pitchside monitors for decisions. So far, officials have relied on the VAR's verdict without taking their own look.