FIFA are considering scrapping the offside rule, according to a report in The Times.

The newspaper reports that FIFA president Sepp Blatter has discussed what would be the most radical rule change in the sport for decades.

Blatter has apparently spoken to the president of the International Hockey Federation, Leandro Nagre, about how hockey abolished the rule in the 1990s.

"He asked me a lot of questions about it and how successful it was, although he never offered an opinion, so it was difficult to judge what football might do," said Negre.

"But he did seem very interested in how we had implemented it."

The offside rule in hockey was abolished in 1998 after a trial period two years earlier, a move which has been credited with making the game more free-flowing and exciting as a spectacle.

Veteran BBC sports commentator Barry Davies firmly believed that it would be a great move for football.

"I would love to see it given a trial in the lower leagues," he said.

"It would probably take a long time for players to adjust. It's also very demanding physically, but I was amazed at how quickly hockey adapted and there's no doubt the game is better for it."

Davies believes that the abolition of offside is not the only rule that football could borrow from hockey, suggesting that the green card - which leads to a two minutes in the sin bin for players - would also work well.

That should be a good move. Two many bad offside calls. Teams are going adjust anyway. Also green card should help with the problem of two many reckless tackles.

Hockey offside rule scrapped? Don't think so. It was modified..... All they did was eliminate the two line pass prohibition at the redline. Offside within the offensive zone is as alive and well as ever.

The idea of eliminating it is nonsense. The only change that I could see would be to introduce a line that is the equivalent of the hockey blue line. In essence it would be almost the same thing. This will open play up beyond the center line.

There are other rule changes that would improve the game i.e. prohibiting goal tenders from playing the ball beyond midfield similar to the three line rule indoors. Nothing is more tedious, boring and exemplary of the frequently mindless play at the highest professional levels than watching GK's punt the ball from their box 85 yards.

Better yet would be to enforce law 12 as it was written. The clutching, holding, grabbing, and obstructing that goes on at all levels results in a lot of ugly soccer. Basketball cracked down on hand-checking and it improved the game. Hockey cracked down on interference and holding and it has improved the game.

Another possible change would be to eliminate or limiting walls on free kicks to 2 or 3 players and moving them back. Nothing is more pointless than watching a DFK hit some lunkhead defenders square in the junk. Increasing the offenses ability to score on DFK's would force defenders to think carefully about tactical fouls that ruin good scoring bids.

Another possible change would be to modify the yellow/red card system and limit fouls as in basketball. This would force players to stop the cluthching and grabbing and to allocate their fouls based on the urgency of the situation.
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I think we are talking about Field Hockey, not Ice Hockey

What's this "field" hockey that you reference?

A silly sport, pay it no mind

I don't know anything about field hockey. Any sport that a guy plays and has to wear a skirt is sketchy to me.