May 27 – Despite football’s lawmakers insisting scientific aids for referees will never go beyond goal-line technology, FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has indicated he would seek a change in the rules if he succeeds in his unlikely bid to oust Sepp Blatter next year.
Champagne is supporting a campaign by the Dutch federation (KNVB) to formally introduce video replays in their senior domestic league next season following an experiment with an unofficial pilot scheme.
The Dutch will need permission from the International Football Association Board which has long made it clear it will not sanction anything beyond goalline technology which is being used in the World Cup next month.
UEFA boss Michel Platini is fiercely opposed even to goalline technology, let alone anything further, preferring Uefa’s system of additional assistant referees.
Champagne, who worked at FIFA for 11 years, thinks these are old-fashioned views because of the pace of modern technology. Whilst video replays should be limited to dead-ball situations, he says, they are an inevitable consequence of the game’s development.
“I fully support the KNVB decision,” said Champagne. “In March last year I wrote to all the national associations with my position on refereeing, and one of the issues was about this subject.
“It (video aids) is inevitable because more and more stadiums are and will be equipped with Wifi connectivity enabling the spectators to stream on their smartphones the matches they attend.”
“The only person in the stadium who will not have access to replays, to computer-generated offside, etc…, will be the referee! In a World Cup final, it will be even worse: 1 billion viewers and one blind one – the referee.”
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