January 28 – UEFA boss Michel Platini has taken another opportunity to promote his preferred system of additional assistant referees (AARs) to help with contentious calls.
The system, with two extra assistants deployed on each goalline to watch for incidents in the penalty area, has long been championed by Platini who believes it is favourable to goalline technology.
Platini is reluctantly considering staging a u-turn over technology for the 2016 European Championship finals because it is being used for this year’s World Cup. But he still insists, unlike FIFA, that his idea of two extra pairs of human eyes is preferable – not least when it comes to diving.
During a press conference unveiling Sir Alex Ferguson as UEFA’s new coaching ambassador last week, Platini interjected when the discussion turned to simulation.
“It exists in some countries where there are no additional referees,” he said.
“It’s useless if you are football player to fall in front of the referee. Simulation has always been done to hide something from the referee. If he is 40 metres away chances are he won’t see it. The arrival of the additional referee has removed a lot of these problems in the penalty box. The stats for the Champions League and in the countries that have the five refs prove this.”
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