Sepp Blatter Announces FIFA Plan To Trial Use Of TV Referral System During Football Matches

Chris Wright

8th, September 2014

5 Comments

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!

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5 Comments

  1. andy says:

    I just wish someone would use the vanishing spray on Blatter in the hope that he would disappear with it!

  2. Murray says:

    Interruptive…

    If play is already stopped after a ref or linesman botches offsides/penalty/goal call or lack thereof (which we all see happen far, far too often for anything purporting itself to be a “beautiful” game), what’s the harm in a manager challenging that call and have the officials take an extra moment to review the play and correct their mistake? It’s not like an additional minute or two of stoppage time at the end of the half is a huge inconvenience.

    Blatter may still be an asshat, but I’m happy to see him acknowledging that there’s a problem with referees making dubious calls for once. No fan of the sport (and, surely, no team owner investing millions of his own capital) tunes in to important Champions League or World Cup fixtures just to see the game swayed by a referee getting an offsides/penalty call completely wrong.

  3. EDub says:

    I have to commend you guys for these Blatter thumbnails. You always seem to find thumbnails representative of his idiocy.

  4. Kingsland101 says:

    Another one of his election promises was to ‘perhaps’ uncover the truth behind FIFA corruption. Says it all really.

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