No "Extra Refs" For The World Cup

[themn]

FIFA declines to change referee structure for World Cup

Dec. 2, 2009
CBSSports.com wire reports

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- FIFA rejected the use of extra match officials at next year's World Cup on Wednesday despite the uproar over Thierry Henry's handball that helped France qualify at the expense of Ireland.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that there was no change for referees at the World Cup from June 11 to July 11, but added there are further plans to introduce more match officials or technology at a later stage and continuing the current experiment in UEFA's Europa League.


"The experiments for the Europa League shall go on," he said. "But it has been decided that for the World Cup 2010 there is no change for referees. We will still have one referee, two assistants, one No. 4 and perhaps additional subs on the bench. But on the field of play you will have one referee and two assistants. This is for 2010 definitely."

Henry handled the ball before setting up an equalizer in last month's 1-1 draw with Ireland in a World Cup playoff that put France through 2-1 on aggregate and eliminated the Irish.

The incident was not spotted by Swedish referee Martin Hansson and the goal stood even though millions saw TV replays of Henry deliberately controlling the ball with his left arm and hand to keep the ball in play.

FIFA rejected an Irish appeal for the game to replayed even though Henry said it was the fairest way to resolve the problem.

 

[SaintGeorge67]

[quote author=themn link=topic=37621.msg1004458#msg1004458 date=1259770145]FIFA rejected an Irish appeal for the game to replayed even though Henry said it was the fairest way to resolve the problem.
[/quote]

After they'd rejected it.

 

[Squiggles]

He also sincerely apologised to the Irish nation.

After gleefully celebrating the victory post-match with the French fans.

Man, that Wiki entry was bang on.

 

[Farkmaster]

I hope the world cup final is ruined by a handball.

What will it fucking take for them to do ANYTHING. Refs behind the goal is a fairly easy to institute change that they aren't willing to do. They tested chips in the ball, and didn't fucking resolve that.

This isn't the hadron collider, it's reffing a game.

FIFA is useless, and has watched as diving and cheating has infected the game, and has done NOTHING to stop it, when there is an obvious solution.

 

[keniget]

I wonder whether it's an aversion to change / technology in general or the view that these incidents 'spice' up the game and would be missed.

 

[Farkmaster]

[quote author=keniget link=topic=37621.msg1004574#msg1004574 date=1259781444]
I wonder whether it's an aversion to change / technology in general or the view that these incidents 'spice' up the game and would be missed.
[/quote]

I think it's just aversion to change. You still get controversy, even with video replay. The NFL still has many controversial calls, and arguments both ways on the same replay.

We'd still have it, but we'd have less blatant cheating, and less blatantly incorrect calls.

 

[Dirty Sanchez]

Yes - I wonder why the use of video replay is even considered an "experiment".

That would suggest that there is a hypothesis behind the use of video evidence that they are trying to disprove.
And so, just what is this hypothesis? That it would aid the referee to be correct more often when making match-changing decisions?
I cannot think of any other hypothesis that would really guide the "experiment" to be quite honest. Also, I think that it would be tough to disprove it.

There is ample evidence of it's utility in other sports to make this a more easy decision than Septic Bladder and his cronies seem to imply.