FIFA cracks down,not on erring refs but on giant screens

FIFA will censor World Cup match action being shown on giant screens inside the stadium.

FIFA will censor World Cup match action being shown on giant screens inside the stadium after replays of Argentinas disputed first goal against Mexico fueled arguments on the pitch. Angry Mexico players protested to referee Roberto Rosetti after the screens in Johannesburgs Soccer City showed Argentina forward Carlos Tevez was offside before he scored the opening goal in a 3-1 victory on Sunday.

FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said on Monday that replaying the incident was a clear mistake. This will be corrected and we will have a closer look into that, Maingot said. We will work on this and be a bit more,I would say,tight on this for the games to be played. He said the screens were used to broadcast a FIFA infotainment program to fans before the match and could be used to replay some match action.

Mum on bad decisions

FIFA also refused to comment on mistakes made by World Cup match officials that contributed to the elimination of England and Mexico. The governing body of world football did not send any officials with responsibility for referees to its daily briefing despite widespread furor over Sundays errors.

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Maingot faced hostile questioning but said he was not competent to discuss decisions by referees or footballs rules-making panel,which has rejected introducing video technology that would help match officials.

Television replays quickly showed on Sunday that England were denied a goal against Germany when Frank Lampards shot bounced down from the crossbar and over the goal line. Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved away the 38th-min non-goal. Former Netherlands great Johan Cruyff joined the debate Monday in support of goal-line technology to help referees. Cameras in the goal are fine, Cruyff wrote in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf,but if you also link that to offside decisions it gets tricky.

Tech? No,leave it

FIFA president Sepp Blatter,who attended both games on Sunday,strongly opposes introducing any video technology to help referees. Let it be as it is and lets leave football with errors, Blatter said after video experiments were halted at a March 2008 meeting of the rules panel,the International Football Association Board.

Other sports regularly to react to the new technology. We dont do it and this makes also the fascination and the popularity of football. No matter which technology is applied,at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being.