The Referee May Be a Mass Debater, But now UEFA Want Two More on the Pitch

For as long as they have had the ability to get a decision wrong, referees have been hated by many a supporter across the world. The anger over wrong decisions made by the man in charge is one thing that unites rival fans and now UEFA are hoping to introduce two more to the equation.

Last spring, the international football association board passed an approval on the latest innovation by UEFA that would see a referee assistant behind each goal. This would result in five assistants to the referee in charge, in the hope that it will provide more awareness during the usual penalty box altercations that happen during the course of a game.

The recent trials of UEFA's new idea took place in the qualifying group of an U-19's tournament in Cyprus and are expected to be tested again in the future. However, this is not the first time that such an idea has been put forward by football governing bodies.

Not a New Idea

The FA Cup final of 1932 was won against much controversy as Arsenal lost the game to eventual winners, Newcastle. The Arsenal players furiously challenged an equalising goal that was claimed to have crossed the dead ball line before it was cut back for a Newcastle player to level the score.

After cameras had proven the Arsenal claims to be correct, as well as highlighting just how far from the incident the referee and linesman were—the idea for two referees on the pitch was put forward.

The experiment took place during a friendly between Southport and Cliftonville and was considered to be an all round success by all participants. A further addition to the idea was suggested and sanctioned in 1935—two referees in each half, but with no linesman, was tested in two separate games: one amateur international and one full international.

The match reports provided by the referees during the trial games went against the idea and after a further attempt by the international football board to push for further trials, the experiment was dropped when it was heavily voted against during an annual meeting.

In 1999, UEFA proposed the two referee idea again, but as before, the world football international board refused to sanction the experiment, claiming there was enough inconsistencies with one referee, so adding another would only increase the problem.

The Move Away From Video Technology

In March of this year, the experiments by FIFA to monitor the success of goal-line technology—created by the Hawk-eye company and used effectively during major tennis tournaments—was halted in favour of pushing ahead with the addition of extra referee's assistants.

UEFA's head of refereeing Yvan Cornu has reacted positively to the recent trials in Cyprus claiming there is only positives to be taken from the new idea:

"Firstly, there is better control of the penalty area, the referee feels more comfortable when there is a counterattack and, especially, there is less dissent from the players," he said.

"The extra assistant has a reassuring and preventative effect and does not affect the control of the game at all—on the contrary, it improves it. So far we haven't seen a negative aspect, which could have created complications or problems."

Despite the positive outlook from UEFA in all of their reports—the idea will no doubt offer problems that they appear to be refusing to acknowledge.

Not a Faultless Proposition

There is of course the notion that ''too many cooks will spoil the broth'' and a controversial decision will now be scrutinised by three separate opinions instead of the original two.

Not everyone in the box will be monitored at all times and there will still be scope for players to continue with the usual behaviour that is presently evident in penalty areas—although this will be minimised to a certain extent.

The goal line referees will definitely help when it comes to seriously misplaced decisions by the current man in charge and his linesman—the Tottenham goal against Man United that that wasn’t given, despite crossing the line by two yards and the more recent goal at Watford that was given despite being three yards from the goal line.

This recent proposal by UEFA is seen by many supporters as another waste of time and another excuse to simply postpone what a great number consider to be the obvious answer to the many controversies that litter important games up and down the country every week—video technology.

The new edition of ''The Liverpool Community Archive'' has now been published and this time it is the turn of new community writer Martin Hunt and his views on the Rotation policy.