´Immeasurable bulls**t´ – Ligue 1 coach destroys Van Basten´s offside plan

Marco van Basten’s suggestion that football should scrap the offside rule has been emphatically dismissed by Rennes coach Christian Gourcuff as “immeasurable bulls**t”.

Former Netherlands great Van Basten put forward a raft of radical proposals this week in his role as FIFA chief official for technical development.

Alongside the ex-Ajax and AC Milan star’s suggestion of sin bins and orange cards, as well as the replacement of penalty shootouts with eight-second run-ups, it was his views on offside laws potentially being obsolete that grabbed headlines.

The likes of Arsene Wenger, Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino chose to respectfully disagree with Van Basten but, when previewing his team’s Ligue 1 match with Guingamp, Gourcuff offered a more strongly worded objection. 

“This is the worst c**p I have read in a long time and yet I did not read it wrong. It’s immeasurable bulls**t,” he told a news conference.

“We would return to the time of village versus village, and at the time it ended with players being killed.

“The offside is a manifestation of collective intelligence. There would be no more collective spirit if the offside rule was removed.

“The offside rule is fundamental – if you do not understand that, you do not understand football.”