Platini Proposes Five Referees At Matches

The highest European football organization is processing a bizarre proposal that five referees will control a match

The new president of Uefa Michel Platini said that adding two more referees who would patrol only the penalty areas, would greatly improve the game, according to the British newspaper The Sun.

The idea was proposed so that dilemmas like the one from Arsenal’s win in the last championship match against Wigan, would no longer trouble football. The main referee of the match Phil Dowd failed to call a clear penalty shot for Wigan, because Flamini tripped Heskey when they were already leading 1-0. To make the situation worse, Arsenal equalized a few moments later, when Flamini’s shot was turned into the goal by Hall, from a clear offside. Arsenal ended up winning 2-1.

Platini could now send his proposal that along with the main referee, two more referees who would control only the penalty area, plus two assistants, to Fifa’s committee which meets next month in Manchester.

-An extra two referees would definitely help clear out dilemmas. Platini does not want to restrict the fluidity of play with video surveillance, but wants to bring in a new system and is willing to experiment – stated the spokesperson for Uefa.

- It is our duty to help the referees who simply cannot see everything, and believes that an extra assistant on each side would fix that problem. It would be a great help in calling offsides and other incidents when the ball is not near – said Platini recently, who rejected the idea of video surveillance, but liked the idea from rugby, where only the captain of the team is allowed to talk directly to the referee, which would eliminate the ugly scenes when the referee is attacked by hoards of players.