Canadian league says 17 World Cup offside goals would have stood in its 'daylight' trial

TORONTO, July 3 : The World Cup has given the Canadian Premier League plenty to discuss with FIFA after a disallowed Cristiano Ronaldo goal was among 17 that would have stood under a revised offside interpretation its top flight is trialling, the league said on Friday.

The CPL has been testing the so-called "daylight" offside rule in its matches this year in cooperation with FIFA.

Under the new approach, an attacking player is ruled offside only if there is a clear gap, or "daylight", between the attacker and the defender, meaning the attacker will be considered onside if any part of the body that can legally score is level with or behind the second-last defender.

The most recent of the 17 World Cup instances identified by the CPL came during the round-of-32 clash between Portugal and Croatia on Thursday at Toronto Stadium, where each side had a goal ruled out for offside that the league said would have stood if the daylight offside interpretation was in effect.

"It's going to make for an interesting conversation coming out of the World Cup with FIFA," said CPL Executive Vice President Costa Smyrniotis, who attended Portugal's 2-1 win over Croatia. "Not only looking at the trial in our league, but observations from the World Cup, and how do you bring those all together?

"At the end of the year, once the trial's done in the CPL, we'll have a better understanding of whether this is something that makes sense going forward — does this trial become permanent?"

'SO MUCH DISCONTENT' OVER OFFSIDE RULES

In the Portugal game, Ronaldo chipped the ball over the Croatia goalkeeper to draw his side level at 1-1, but the celebration of what would have been his first World Cup knockout stage goal was cut short as the linesman's flag was