IFAB approves additional assistant referee experiment

IFAB approves additional assistant referee experiment
(FIFA.com) Wednesday 21 July 2010
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The Technical Sub-Committee of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) approved several requests from member associations and confederations to implement the experiment with two additional assistant referees during the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons at a meeting held today, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 in Cardiff, Wales. The full list of approved requests can be found below.

At a previous Special Meeting of the IFAB held in Zurich on 18 May 2010, the Board had reviewed the experiment with two additional assistant referees that was carried out in the 2009/2010 UEFA Europa League, and had decided to continue the experiment until the 126th IFAB Annual General Meeting in 2012, but not to limit it to a single confederation. Therefore, confederations and member associations wishing to conduct this experiment were invited to inform IFAB of their interest for a decision to be taken at the meeting of the Technical Sub-Committee in Wales.

Four basic criteria had been established in order to approve the experiment:

1. The experiment must be conducted in member associations’ professional leagues and competitions or at confederation level (club competitions only).

2. The experiment must be completed in time to allow a decision to be taken in 2012.

3. The additional costs incurred by conducting such an experiment must be covered by the relevant league, member association or confederation.

4. It is mandatory for all matches in the applicable competition to be officiated with two additional assistant referees.

Based on these criteria, the following requests were approved, provided that the protocol established by the IFAB for the experiment is followed:

Asian Football Confederation (AFC): AFC President’s Cup 2010 (24-26 September)

Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF): Campeonato Baiano de Futebol Feminino 2010 (Sept-Dec 2010), Campeonato Carioca de 2011

Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF): Torneo Clausura 2011, Torneo Apertura 2011 and Torneo Clausura 2012

Fédération Française de Football (FFF): Coupe de la Ligue 2010/2011 (League Cup)

Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA): UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, UEFA Europa League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, and UEFA Super Cup 2010 and 2011.

Also approved, but pending confirmation of the specific competitions, were official competitions of the Federação Baiana, the Federação Paulista and Federação Pernambucana in Brazil.

Finally, FIFA and the Technical Sub-Committee confirmed that goal-line technology will be on the agenda of the next Annual Business Meeting of the IFAB in October 2010.