FIFA eyes professional referees for 2010 World Cup

World Cup 2006 News

Jul 9, 2006, 13:56 GMT

Frankfurt - FIFA hopes to have professional referees in place for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Sunday. Football's governing body intends to invest 40 million dollars over the next four years in training programmes for referees, the magazine said in its latest edition. 'We need to professionalize the whole spectrum of refereeing,' Der Spiegel quoted FIFA president Joseph Blatter as saying. The Swiss was critical of some of the refereeing at the World Cup in Germany, singling out Russian Valentin Ivanov's performance in the Netherlands-Portugal match. 'The referee made some inconsistent decisions and was not at the same level as the participants, the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee,' he told Portugal's SIC television channel. Blatter appeared especially annoyed at the poor refereeing display because he had resolved there must be improvements after criticism that followed the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Ivanov's orgy of yellow and red on June 25 marked a record in World Cup history - four players sent off and another eight warned. Three days earlier, Blatter had already lashed out at English referee Graham Poll for showing three yellow cards to Croatia's Josip Simunic. The FIFA boss before the tournament had encouraged team spirit among match officials by nominating only referee-and-assistants trios who had at least two years' experience of working together in their respective countries. In addition, all officials were 'subjected to rigorous physical and psychological tests' before being chosen, according to FIFA media director Markus Siegler. Der Spiegel quoted Blatter as saying he hoped for a 'uniform approach to applying the rules' from from professional referees who earn their living from officiating at matches. Players were unaware of where to draw the line when 'one (referee) lets things go and the other takes harsh decisions,' Blatter said. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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