December 23 – Vanishing spray, used for several years in South America to stop defensive walls encroaching at free kicks, is to be employed throughout next year’s World Cup by referees.
The water-based spray, developed in Argentina and Brazil, was trialed at the just-completed Club World Cup in Morocco as well as the Under-20 and Under-17 World Cups earlier this year and FIFA believe it has sufficient merit to be used on the biggest stage of all.
“I think it’s a very good solution, some say it takes too much time and I was also quite sceptical at the beginning but… all the referees who have used the system were pleased with it,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter told reporters.
“The representative of Bayern Munich said that here they can take free-kicks with the wall nine metres away, while at home it’s only five,” Blatter said. “It’s a novelty….we will start using it in the World Cup in Brazil next year.”
World Cup referees will clearly need some training ahead of time, however. Marcello Lippi, coach of Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande, complained that the referee did not measure the distance correctly during his team’s 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich during the Club World Cup. “The wall was 15 metres from the ball,” Lippi said.
After years of foot-dragging, Fifa have already decided to give goal-line technology its World Cup debut in Brazil to avoid the kind of error that led to Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ for England against Germany being disallowed in South Africa in 2010.
“These are two new innovations and we’ve received positive feedback from teams, players and referees,” Blatter said in Marrakech.
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