Goal-Line Refs for Europa League

By: Daryl | June 2nd, 2009

As mentioned in yesterday’s Daily Dose, UEFA is going ahead with that extra goal-line referee idea first proposed in Juanuary 2008 and recently trialled during the European Under-19 Championship qualifiers (pictured).

The idea is to have two extra officials, one on each goal-line (as pictured). And it’s getting a trial run in the 2009/10 Europa League.

Here’s the official word from UEFA:

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.

I see the two extra refs as a good thing. No, it’s not as good as goal-line video technology. But it’s better than nothing. And – maybe more importantly – the new refs will be able to watch what happens in the box from angles the main ref can’t see. So it’s all good in my eyes.

Not so sure about trialling it in the Europa League though. The Europa League is either a proper competition we should take seriously… or it’s so meaningless that UEFA sees it as the football version of a laboratory rat.

And if the main hope of attracting viewers is this hairspray in the eyes product testing, then what was the point of that big rebranding effort? I suppose this experiment does guarantee two extra viewers at every game. But if they’re being paid to watch then it doesn’t really count.

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Category: Europe

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I'm not sure that it's a good idea.

surely it will just increase the chance of human error. i think a video ref is needed for the goal-line decisions.
NMY

Oh man, I never knew UEFA was considering this since last year...

I play and follow basketball and baseball as well, and I know enough bout hockey, living in Canada, and from watching those sports, I always thought that footy needed more refs closer to the action. It's a lot of area a footy ref needs to cover by himself, in the current setup. I know, cuz i tried refing a couple times before ...

I had two ideas in mind, one with one additional ref which would create two refs with equal authority, over one half each, or the other idea, with two additional refs with... well, pretty much exactly what UEFA just announced~

This is some good shit from UEFA! Gotta finally root out diving once and for all with yellows, and gotta finally get 99% of those goal-line decisions right. Absolutely brilliant, well done Platini~~~
Lee

"By the way, how much do refs in the PL get?"
Currently a basic salary of £70,000 per annum (that's around $113,000), plus appearance fee and travel expenses. They need to have given up their previous full-time occupation in order to receive this.
DarthZombie

I'm really curious about one thing: when a player shoots a torpedo at the goal, how will be these extra refs protected?
Beau

By the way, how much do refs in the PL get?
Marotta

look on the bright side, maybe if we are lucky we can see a few of them get hit from all the wide shots
Dustin Edwards

"Why are refs in short supply?"

Because would you be a ref? They're treated like crap...why would anyone wanna do that job? Which brings up a further question...what the hell is wrong with me, I gotta get outa this job.
sscouser

I remember writing:
"Even having two referees won’t guarantee fair calls. Refs have made wrong decisions while being 2 yards from the action."
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org...

Quality is more important than quantity. We all know that quality referees are already in short supply so where will these additional refs come from? Will they be professional referees?

Anyway, it seems to be a good idea.

Why are refs in short supply? It seems we just know how to criticize refs.
Jose159

It does seem to take away from the credibility of the competition.

I'm also concerned that it might look a little goofy for there to always be some guy at the post like that... but hey, if it means better calls in the box then I'm 100% behind it.
Wayne Farry

It's kinda stupid when you think about it. They must have wanted to rebrand it as the Europa League to make it a more respectable competition and now they're using it as a tester tournament. A shame, really.