[MassachusettsRef]

I'll go out on a limb and say that this article will generate substantial discussion.

From former French FIFA Referee Michel Vautrot, posted as the headline article on the front page of FIFA's official website.....

http://www.fifa.com/Service/MR_A/42503_E.html

I'll reserve comment for now.

[Claymore]

Still digesting this one, as it was poorly written.

Laser beams between the posts?

[GlennAA11]

Obviously he does not speak English as his first language, which is what made this thing difficult to read.

Not sure how a laser beam would tell the difference between the ball and a foot or hand or shoulder or pigeon. But I think the search for technology that works is not necessarily a bad thing.

Some interesting points raised, but haven't we all moved on from this WC by now? Why bring all of this stuff up again?

[soccernutter]

Some good points were made, but...

1- this committee: how big will it be, and who will be left out?

2- Immediate explusions (again): this is not the way, IMO.

3- English as a required language for the officials? How about spending more time together before the WC?

4- The referee as judges: our judges (at an equal level) must produce opinions on why judgements were made. What not do a similar thing with match reports? Why must we be so secretive?

[kevbrunton]

As others have said, it's very poorly written and therefore very hard to follow.

A couple things that stick out to me are his recommendations to reduce the size of the FIFA referee pool and a reduction in the number appointed to each competition.

On the one hand, this may have some merit because, as he points out, then the smaller pool of referees would get to do more games at the highest level and would presumably be more experienced / better referees.

However, what he is proposing is a fewer number of referees from EACH country. What I would rather see is a fewer number of referees TOTAL, but not have artificial limits on the number from a given country. If a referee is good enough to be a FIFA referee, why should he be left out of that pool just because his country happens to have a number of other referees who are very good.

If the pool is limited to 5 referees per country and England or Jamaica or Brazil or whoever has 6 or 7 or 8 VERY good referees and another country say USA or Russia or Japan or whoever only had 3 or 4 VERY good referees, why should the 4th or 5th referees from the second group of countries be in the pool at the expense of the 6th, 7th or 8th referee from the first group of countries.

[Alberto]

Originally posted by kevbrunton
As others have said, it's very poorly written and therefore very hard to follow.

A couple things that stick out to me are his recommendations to reduce the size of the FIFA referee pool and a reduction in the number appointed to each competition.

On the one hand, this may have some merit because, as he points out, then the smaller pool of referees would get to do more games at the highest level and would presumably be more experienced / better referees.

However, what he is proposing is a fewer number of referees from EACH country. What I would rather see is a fewer number of referees TOTAL, but not have artificial limits on the number from a given country. If a referee is good enough to be a FIFA referee, why should he be left out of that pool just because his country happens to have a number of other referees who are very good.

If the pool is limited to 5 referees per country and England or Jamaica or Brazil or whoever has 6 or 7 or 8 VERY good referees and another country say USA or Russia or Japan or whoever only had 3 or 4 VERY good referees, why should the 4th or 5th referees from the second group of countries be in the pool at the expense of the 6th, 7th or 8th referee from the first group of countries.

This is an excellent point. The reality is that there are huge differences in what constitute a FIFA referee from one federation to the next. FIFA should be more selective, but they should also not limit the number of referees appointed from each country. That is an artificial construct.