German Bundesliga to use 4th Official

[IASocFan]

The German Bundesliga has announced:

A fourth official will be introduced into Germany's 1. Bundesliga on a temporary basis when the season resumes on 25 January.

For details, see: http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/News/Kind=512/newsId=50479.html

This has been around for awhile, but I couldn't find a reference to it. Any one know how it's going?

[Alberto]

Originally posted by IASocFan
The German Bundesliga has announced:


A fourth official will be introduced into Germany's 1. Bundesliga on a temporary basis when the season resumes on 25 January.

For details, see: http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/News/Kind=512/newsId=50479.html

This has been around for awhile, but I couldn't find a reference to it. Any one know how it's going?

I honestly was shocked when I read that announcement in January that the Bundesliga had no fourth officials. It's ridiculous. So far it's going well from the matches I have watched. As far as an experiment, at this level it should be mandatory.

[billf]

I emailed the guy at Fox Sports World that covers the Bundesliga about this, yes I have a problem :), and he told me that there was a record number of send-offs in Germany last year and the bench areas were "out of control". There were a few incidents this year, though they weren't specified, so the fourth official was introduced at the end of the winter break (Jan 2003). I've only had FSW since December, so I don't know the specific from Germany. I did find it interesting that one of the top leagues in the world didn't use a fourth official until January 2003 though. Apparently it's costing the DFB about 250,000 euros for the rest of the season.