FIFA has confirmed that it has no intention of changing its offside law, despite claims from players and managers that the new guidlelines are causing unnecessary confusion.

The law now states that a player in an offside position is only deemed offside if interfering with play, interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

“There seems to be misunderstanding in the media, but not among those in the game,’ a FIFA spokesman told BBC sport.

“Goals and attacking opponents were being cancelled out by players being offside but not interfering with play.”

However, thereremains confusion as to what precisely constitutes “active” and Bolton manager Sam Allardyce was particularly vocal with his criticisms of the new guidelines.

Allardyce said: “I don’t think it adds anything to the game whatsoever other than confusion.

“It’s not the referees fault, it’s FIFA’s. I think they have got it wrong.”

But FIFA insists: “this is not a new rule, it is a clarification of the interpretation of a rule”.

“Further details of the rule were given to ensure the laws of the game are respected, and to protect the attacking players.”