Mohareb in FIFA agreement over video technology

Lancashire’s Referee Development officer Dean Mohareb has backed FIFA’s recent decision not to include video technology or additional referees in the 2010 World Cup.

Mohareb, also officiating as an assistant referee in the Football League, agrees with FIFA that it is ‘too soon’ to bring in changes for the World Cup, he said: “To be fair to FIFA the experiment with the additional referees has been a pilot scheme so they have to wait for the results of the scheme until they can bring it into law and the next time they can make law changes is after the World Cup.”

FIFA were put under severe pressure from the Irish Football Association (IFA) and the media following the Republic of Ireland’s controversial exit form the qualifying stages for next summer’s World Cup courtesy of a Thierry Henry handball.

While the decision to rule out the option of using instant video replays wouldn’t have come as a major shock to most people the idea of introducing extra officials behind the goal-line, which is already being tested in the Europa League this season, is one many thought FIFA would consider introducing.

Although Mohareb agrees with FIFA’s decision to not include video replays in the South Africa World Cup he does believe that the technology or extra officials would be a helpful addition to referees and assistant alike.

He said: “From a referee’s point of view any assistance that we can have on decisions that are factual like is the ball over the line would be helpful, whether that’s video or the additional assistants it would be helpful if that is brought in.”

UEFA President Michel Platini was behind the plan to employ extra officials behind the goals and the approach is something that Mohareb believes that if extra officials were officiating in the game between Republic of Ireland and France then Henry would have been spotted handling the ball.

He said: “It (The handball) was one of them situations where I think only the official behind the goal would have picked up. The decision was wrong due to poor position rather than anything else.”

The incident involving French captain Henry sparked huge controversy throughout the footballing world and with FIFA declining the IFA’s appeal for the game to be replayed the ongoing debate about whether or not video replays should be introduced into football was once again refuelled.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is opposed to the idea of video technology becoming a part of football because he believes it will broaden the gap further between the elite and amateur level. The stance taken by Mr Blatter is one that Moherab completely agrees with, he added: “It would certainly be made bigger in terms of finance. Football is a worldwide game so in some countries funding such equipment is going to be difficult so the gap would increase financially definitely.”

With the attention on FIFA it gave the referee in question, Mr Martin Hansson, time to reflect on his decision and recover from a tirade of abuse from football fans who heavily criticised him for not noticing the handball. At one point the Swedish referee even considered quitting the game altogether.

But Moherab believes there was nothing the Swedish referee could have done.
Most of the criticism from the media came from his homeland Sweden where in one newspaper, Aftonbladet, their article said: “There are millions of Irishmen around the world. We guarantee they all feel pretty bad today. But I sincerely hope there are three Swedes that feel even worse. They are Martin Hansson and (referee's assistants) Stefan Wittberg and Fredrik Nilsson."

They concluded by adding: "There will be no World Cup for Ireland and I assume that Team Hansson has also forfeited its right to continue to take charge of major international matches. Anything else would be a further insult to the Irish nation."

However Mr Hansson has since decided to stay in refereeing after seeing a graphic produced by English newspaper The Times. The graphic showed that Hansson, who was standing on the edge of the 18-yard box, had his view blocked by three players. The assistant was on the other side of the pitch to Henry and had his line of sight obscured by Shay Given, the Ireland goalkeeper.

Moherab backs Hansson decision to stay in the game and also feels the Handball decision was impossible for him to make, he said: “If you look at the pro-zone traces of the actual clip the assistant has players in between him and Henry and the ref was very square on and didn’t have a good view. Unfortunately the official has got the big decision wrong but it was down to poor position rather than anything else.”

He added: “I thought the referee had an excellent game up to that point game and unfortunately we are in a game as referees where we get judged on the big decisions and he got the big decision wrong so obviously the assessment of the referee will reflect that but it’s really unfortunate because up to that incident he had a really good game.”

Blatter further angered the IFA further by announcing and laughing at their proposal to include the Republic of Ireland as the 33rd team in the 2010 World Cup which is only meant to have 32.

The IFA has hit out at the FIFA President for making their claims public, a statement said: "The Football Association of Ireland acknowledges that the suggestion of an additional place at the World Cup is not a possibility and requested yesterday that it will not be raised at today's FIFA executive committee meeting."

(Below) Is a timeline I created using dipity: it represents some of the major decisions of the years which video technology could have helped.

Refereeing Decisions that Video Technology could have aided on Dipity.