The refereeing experiment involving five match officials is to continue at fixtures in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League on the proposal of the UEFA President Michel Platini, following the approval of the FIFA Executive Committee at their meeting in Nassau, Bahamas.
Two extra
assistants
Football's lawmakers, the International FA Board (IFAB), had
given their permission for the continuation of the
experiment at their 2009 annual general meeting earlier this
year. In addition to the match referee and two assistant
referees on the touchline, two extra assistants are placed
behind the goalline, with the mission of focusing on
incidents which happen in the penalty area, such as fouls or
misconduct. The latest tests will now take place in the UEFA
Europa League and will be sure to focus even more attention
on the new and enhanced European club competition next
season.
Positive
feedback
The initial experiment with
two additional assistant referees was successfully tested at
qualifying round mini-tournaments during the UEFA European
Under-19 Championship last autumn, and feedback was
extremely positive from both match officials and observers.
After receiving a report on the experiment involving the
additional assistant referees, the members of the IFAB gave
permission for the continuation of FIFA's experiment, this
time in a professional league.
'Need to help
referees'
Mr Platini said of the
experiment: "Everyone agrees on the need to help referees.
With football getting ever faster and the players ever
fitter, it sometimes seems the men in black face a mission
impossible. Two extra pairs of eyes focusing on the penalty
areas are of valuable assistance to the referee and
strengthen the referee team in confidence and numbers, while
allowing the game to flow. The best teams are often the ones
who demonstrate the greatest cohesion � by strengthening the
position of the main referee we are creating the ideal
conditions for the referee team to also be one of the best."