FIFA'S JOB CREATION SCHEME

Last updated : 10 March 2003 By editor

From The Observer

‘Football will this week finally act to banish refereeing blunders by introducing an extra official behind each goal to help ensure more accurate decisions about controversial incidents in the penalty box. The fourth and fifth officials, called 'goal-line assistants', will act as an extra pair of eyes for the referee on penalty claims, professional fouls and disputes over whether the ball has actually crossed the line.

Such a radical change is being introduced after Fifa president Sepp Blatter criticised the poor standard of officiating at last summer's World Cup, especially by linesmen, from which countries such as Italy suffered.

They will be first used at Fifa's under-17 world championships in Finland in August and are expected to be phased in across football if the trial proves successful. It was this tournament that, in 1991, pioneered the backpass rule that later became standard throughout the global game.

The creation of goal-line assistants will be approved on Saturday when the International Football Association Board, the body that makes the game's rules, holds its annual general meeting in Belfast. It will debate two proposals that Fifa have submitted in a bid to get more consistency to the quality of decisions: goal-line assistants, and an experiment to allow referees and their two existing assistants to communicate during a match by two-way radio, especially about incidents off the ball. Blatter still refuses to allow referees access to instant video replays of controversial incidents, though.’