Blatter sorry for mistakes

Fifa President apologised to the Football Association over Lampard’s disallowed goal in England’s defeat by Germany.

Fifa President Sepp Blatter apologised to the Football Association over Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal in England’s World Cup defeat by Germany. Mexico also received a fulsome apology from Blatter over refereeing errors and announced that Fifa would discuss the introduction of goal-line technology at a meeting next month in Cardiff.

“I deplore it when you see evident referee mistakes but it’s not the end of a competition or the end of football,” said Blatter. “I’ve spoken to the two federations [England and Mexico] directly concerned by referees’ mistakes. I apologised to England and Mexico. The English said ‘thank you’ and accepted that you can win [some] and you lose [some], and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it.”

Blatter said the issue will now form part of the agenda at next month’s meeting of the International FA Board, the body that decides the laws of the game.“It’s obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup, it’d be nonsense not to reopen the file on goal-line technology.”

Blatter also said that Fifa, in October or November, would unveil a global plan to improve refereeing. “We’ll start with a new concept of how to improve match control. I cannot disclose more of what we’re doing but something has to be changed.”

Fifa has consistently rebuffed all demands to resort to video technology to resolve contentious refereeing decisions despite successful implementation in other sports such as tennis, cricket and rugby union claiming that it would disrupt the free-flowing movement of the game. “The game must be played in the same way no matter where you are in the world,” said Blatter. AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2010.