FIFA reject extra referees proposal

FIFA have rejected a proposal to have the experimental system of having five referees involved in every match fast-tracked for next summer's World Cup.

FIFA will maintain one referee with two assistants and a fourth official for the finals.

They will open an inquiry into whether to bring in technology or have extra officials.

Sepp Blatter said the World Cup would come too soon to allow the inclusion of the system currently being trialled in the Europa League, with two extra assistant referees behind each goal-line.

The FIFA president said: "The executive committee came to the decision that the referee is not any longer consistent with the quality and the speed of the game, and the interest of television and 32 cameras as we will have in the World Cup.

"We shall have a look at technology or additional persons and this shall be done by a committee but not the referees committee alone, it will be done by the football, technical and medical committees, too.

"The experiments with the Europa League shall go on into the knockout stages next year but it has been decided, for the World Cup 2010, there is no change in the refereeing: one referee, two assistants and a fourth official.

"We do not ignore the experiments but they are being made in only one professional league in Europe. Most of those referees will not be selected for the World Cup.

"In the other countries the experiments have not been made so it's the opinion, not only of the executive committee but other committees, too, that an experiment must be carried out globally before you can put it into the World Cup."