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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Great footballer, dotty ideas

Two more referees, both aged over 45, standing near the goalline to sort out business in the penalty area? Sound nutty? Well it is. Unfortunately it's also the idea of the new boss of UEFA, Michel Platini, he of the silky skills back in the 1970s and who has been pushed by his mentor, Sepp Blatter, for many years. So that'll give us one four referees (one on the pitch, the two old codgers and a fourth referee) plus 2 assistants. Oh yes and in World Cups there'll be another one to step in if the ref is injured. A team of 7 match officials? A couple more and they could actually put a football team together. Come on Michel, let's engage brain before bouche shall we?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Consider this Simon. In an American, NFL football game (yeah right, the "other" football...) the field is slightly smaller than a soccer pitch, and 22 players occupy it. In those games, a crew of SEVEN officials is needed to monitor the action. As I understand it, the current 3-man referee system has been used since around 1920. No one doubts that the game is played by faster, stronger, and less honorable people today. If three men were adequate to monitor the game in 1920, common sense tells you that this is no longer true. Is this the optimum solution? I don't know, but it's not a bad idea to discuss...