THERE'S some bad news for football managers. Another two officials are coming to make their lives hell.
In August's World Under-17s Championships in Finland, there will be an official on both goal lines to add to the referee, two assistants and the fourth official.
And if the trial is successful the proposal will spread throughout football in a year or two.
So that's another two officials to be insulted, abused and blamed for a defeat that has, in reality, been brought about by the failings of either the manager or his players -- or both.
What is interesting about this plan is where all these officials are going to come from. Six on duty at 46 English league matches is another 92 highly-ranked officials in total every Saturday, not including the hundreds of Conference, non-league and top amateur matches.
The goal line assistants' job will be to stand next to the post and advise the referee on issues such as penalty claims, professional fouls and whether the ball has crossed the line or not.
We already have people to do that. They are called linesmen (or assistant referees to be politically correct) and the new men will not take away the potential for human error that exists now.
There are only two solutions to this problem of human error. Either people grow up and start to accept refereeing mistakes or we introduce a video ref to give an accurate decision on two issues -- whether the ball has crossed the line and if a foul was committed inside or outside the box.
I favour the latter and it is so easy to implement it is embarrassing. If a ref is in doubt over whether a foul was committed inside the box or if the ball had crossed the line he plays on until the ball goes dead when he instructs the video ref to advise him.
If video evidence shows a penalty or a goal should not be given, the game restarts where it went dead.
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