By Chris Wright
Speaking via video link at the Soccerex conference in Manchester earlier today, football’s dear leader Sepp Blatter first announced his intention to run (unopposed, more than likely) for a fifth term as FIFA president as “his mission is not finished” – insert your own punchline here.
This of course being the very same 78-year-old Sepp Blatter that promised us all these last four years would be his final four years in office when addressing a UEFA conference back in 2011.
Hey ho.
Anyway, Blatter also announced to the Soccerex audience that he and his FIFA cronies are planning to trial a TV referral system in football which would allow each coach to challenge at least one refereeing call in each half of any given game.
The Swiss dumpling explained the proposed system thus:
“They (coaches) have the right in the half, twice or once, to challenge a refereeing decision but only when the game is stopped.
“Then, there must be a television monitor but by the television company and not by another referee.
“And then the referee and the coach, they will go then to look, and then the referee may change his mind, as it is the case in tennis, for instance.
“It can only be done where there is television coverage of all the matches.
“Or in one FIFA competition, we can try in a youth competition, an Under-20, like next year when we are in New Zealand.”
Sounds…unduly fiddly, convoluted and interruptive.
This being FIFA we’re talking about, we look forward to the system’s imminent introduction.
Why couldn’t they just be satisfied with the vanishing spray? Everybody loves the vanishing spray!