After an emergency meeting of the FIFA executive committee on Wednesday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that the five referee system would not be used at the 2010 World Cup. Blatter said that five referee system had not been tested through out the world and cited concerns that confusion could arise because referees were not familiar with the system.The 2010 World Cup will use the current system of one referree with two assistants plus a fourth match official on the sidelines.
Blatter stated that FIFA would, in addition to the 5 referee system, investigate the use of video technology:
“The executive committee came to the decision that the referee is not any longer consistent with the quality and the speed of the game, and the interest of television and 32 cameras as we will have in the World Cup . . . We shall have a look at technology or additional persons and this shall be done by a committee but not the referees committee alone, it will be done by the football, technical and medical committees, too.”
Blatter, as well as FIFA vice president Franz Beckenbauer and UEFA president Michel Platini have all previously voiced opposition to the use of video technology.
Blatter also confirmed that FIFA’s disciplinary committee will meet to investigate “the behaviour” of Thierry Henry in the France v Ireland match. “This is a matter of the disciplinary committee and it’s not a question of this player or another – it was blatant, unfair playing and was shown all around the world, but I don’t know what the outcome will be,” Blatter said. A match ban would mean that Henry would miss the beginning of the World Cup.
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