By Mike Collett
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1 - Soccer's ruling body should
sanction the use of limited video technology to help referees,
France FA technical director Gerard Houllier said on the eve of
an extraordinary FIFA executive committee meeting in Cape Town.
David Dein, one of the most influential consultants in the
game, also said he expected ruling body FIFA to allow two extra
officials at the 2010 World Cup as the debate over Thierry
Henry's handball in last month's France-Ireland playoff rumbled
on.
Houllier, the former France and Liverpool manager, told
delegates at the Soccerex business convention on Tuesday: "I am
very much in favour of goalline technology but I have mixed
feelings about video technology in general.
"You do have a lot of problems in the penalty area and it
would help if there were two extra men behind the goal to help
the referee. FIFA should consider this.
"I am very reluctant to have video technology away from the
goalline because you can't have 26 cameras at a game in the
Faroe Islands (for example) and you have to leave the referee to
know the game and to interpret," added Houllier.
"But with the Thierry Henry handball as an example, the
fourth official (on the touchline) should have a monitor. In
some circumstances the referee could ask him through a
microphone if there was something controversial he couldn't see.
"I don't think having goalline technology and five referees
will reduce the uncertainty in the game but it will definitely
reduce the chance of injustice."
Houllier said technology could have spared Henry much of the
criticism he faced after he handled in the build-up to the goal
that secured France a 1-1 second-leg draw and a place in the
finals in South Africa.
"It would have saved Thierry a lot of abuse, half of France
thinks we should not be going to the World Cup," said Houllier.
"We could have been spared that but the incident makes the
whole of football very unpopular."
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Dein, a former vice-chairman of Arsenal and the English FA,
is another leading advocate of goalline technology and in an
address to delegates he said he expected FIFA to sanction it
within three to four years.
"The game has moved on and referees need help and have even
said they would welcome it," said Dein. "The time has come for
goalline technology to be introduced.
"The camera will always beat the eye."
FIFA president Sepp Blatter, a staunch opponent of video
technology, called Wednesday's extraordinary meeting because of
incidents that arose in the playoffs.
Blatter said there were three items on Wednesday's agenda --
match control, the future organisation of the qualifying round
of the World Cup and match-fixing.
He gave a broad hint extra officials would be introduced in
time for next year's finals when he told Soccerex delegates:
"Match control is now on the agenda.
"How can we avoid the cheating handball situation we had in
that game between France and Ireland for example? I think there
should be some additional (assistant referees)."
If FIFA decide to go ahead with the plan, it will almost
certainly be approved by the law-making International Board next
March in time to be adopted at the World Cup in June.
(Editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)