FIFA president Sepp Blatter hold a football during the launch of the official matchball for the 2010 World Cup, before the draw in Cape Town December 4, 2009.MIKE HUTCHINGS
Who says Joseph "Sepp" Blatter is the imperious head of a bloated and quite possibly corrupt organization that is far more interested in raking in bucks than in the interests of the hundreds of millions of soccer fans worldwide?
Well, pretty much everyone.
But even from his ivory tower, the FIFA headman is apparently capable of understanding which way the wind is blowing.
At a media briefing this morning in Johannesburg, Blatter did what his underlings refused to do the day before - he acknowledged and discussed the officiating errors which have marred this World Cup.
"Naturally I deplore it when you see the evidence of referee mistakes," Blatter said "But it's not the end of a competition or the end of football. This can happen."
Blatter then opened the door to the possibility of using goal-line technology, such as a ball with an embedded microchip, or a "hawk eye" style system like the one used to confirm line calls in tennis, to determine whether or not the ball crosses the line.
But he said that both systems present problems - the microchip, because of the considerable expense and proprietary issues with the balls that would be used, and the "hawk eye" because it relies on cameras.
"The camera system can only reveal what the camera can see," Blatter said. "There are situations on the goal line where the ball cannot be seen by the camera because there are players around and the goalkeeper has the ball - if you cannot see it then you cannot be accurate."
At the same time, Blatter absolutely rejected the use of video replays, as they are employed in other professional sports - even though that type of system could have rectified the two most crucial officiating errors here, the clear Frank Lampard goal in the England-Germany round of sixteen match that was missed by the referee and his assistants, and the Carlos Tevez goal for Argentina against Mexico, which was obviously offside.
"Football is a game that never stops," he said. "You have seen, if you go back to the special game [England-Germany]we are speaking about now, at the moment there was a discussion of whether the ball was in or out. On the other side there was a goal scoring opportunity. Because it goes so fast. Football never stops. So what should we do? Give the possibility of a team to call once or twice like in tennis to have a look? This principle has not been accepted after having been discussed. The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is the goal line technology."
As for the possibility of using video replays to aid in ruling out offside goals, Blatter said: "In this situation like the Mexico game you don't need technology. Errors of refereeing it is impossible [to eliminate] even with one hundred cameras on the field."
That discussion of goal-line technology will take place at a business meeting scheduled for next month in Cardiff, following the end of this tournament.
Blatter said that FIFA would endeavour, once again, to try to improve the overall standard of refereeing at the games highest level. "Naturally we deplore, and I personally deplore, when you see the evident referees mistakes." he said.
But he was unclear about exactly how FIFA would move to improve officiating standards
"I cannot disclose more of what we are doing, but something has to be changed," he said.
As for the remainder of the tournament, Blatter said that nothing would change for final 10 matches, and reiterated his long held position that human error is simply a part of the game.
"The moment we have denied that there shall be [no new]technology here, then we have to live with the errors of referees," he said….
"We hope. We cross fingers that we have a good last part, and most important part of this competition."