Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » Football remains in the stone age

By Walter Broeckx

Tomorrow the IFAB (International Football Association Board),  the committee that is deciding upon the rules in football will have a meeting on Wednesday. The meeting will be held in Cardiff.

And on the agenda of the meeting is only one item. And this item is to study and eventually approve the demand of different Fifa members to be able to put 2 extra refs in their competitions in the next two seasons. So if the IFAB approves this change in laws it could be possible that in the EPL we have 2 extra refs standing near the goal to help the refs with the pulling, the holding and the wrestling in the penalty area.

We all have seen this in the Europa League in the last season. And to be honest I don’t know what I have to think about it. It is something that you could put older refs in who are experienced but who have passed the maximum age imposed by Uefa and Fifa for international games. That is if those refs are willing to do this. But it is a position where you don’t need much physical strength as most of the time you are standing still or just walk a few yards from left to right.

So I am not against it but I think that Fifa or Uefa should come in the open with some clear rules about this. What is he allowed to do and what not. Can he signal a penalty offence to the ref and does the ref have to follow it or not. Now it is rather in a somewhat twilight zone and nobody knows exactly what they could, should or must do.

But you will probably remember that one of the reasons that Blatter had rejected the idea of technological assistance to help the refs was that the game is played according to the same rules all over the world and at all levels, and this was the reason why football was so popular. I previously wrote (after Blatter said this) that he was talking nonsense as the game is not played in the same way all over the world now. But can you expect from the president of Fifa to be is aware of this? He should be but we are talking about Blatter so I think it is normal that he doesn’t know how football is being played at lower levels or youth level.

But by introducing these two extra refs as a result not all games will be played according to the same rules. A notion of which Blatter was so proud.

Most of us will also remember that in the world cup we had two major incidents where the referees made a mess of it. The not given goal from England against Germany and the blatant offside goal from Argentina against Mexico. And after those incidents at the world cup Fifa-president Joseph Blatter said: “that it would be ridiculous to not reopen the discussion about technological assistance to help the refs after these incidents.”

And we can also remember that at the start of this year Blatter was in favour of technological assistance all of a sudden but only to change his mind a few months later when IFAB  voted against it. He suddenly was against it as well. In fact he changes his mind more than often on this subject. Maybe together with putting on a new shirt I think.

And now on the meeting they will not even talk about technological assistance. So the only conclusion I can come up with is that Sepp Blatter is a ridiculous person and Fifa is a ridiculous organisation. He himself has used the words ridiculous and his own words come back to bite him.

So apart from in some leagues having two extra refs standing next to the field, nothing will change. And some things will be left to humans and their shortcomings. The fact that a ball crossing the goal line is up to the human eye will keep the result sometimes open to some teams being done injustice. I deeply regret this and I think that Fifa can change the rules just for world cups, European championships and introduce the use of goal line technology at least.

Fifa and Uefa earn a lot of money in these tournaments and all they have to do is to put a few extra devices in the goals and it will be clear for everyone if the ball has passed the line or not. The refs will be able to concentrate on dealing with the fouls, and this task is already difficult enough, and off sides.

But that is not the way Fifa want it. Almost every sport in the world has moved on and has welcomed any possible technological help on their fields. And if I hear the fans and the players from those sports, like tennis, cricket and rugby most of them are very happy with this. But Fifa want football to stay in the stone age period. And with people leading this organisation who are from that period, what can you expect.

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