Wednesday 26 November 2014 20:09, UK
The most powerful lawmakers in football have held two-day talks in Northern Ireland to discuss potential changes to the Laws of the Game, writes Sky Sports chief news reporter Bryan Swanson in Belfast.
Officials from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) met by the 12th floor Penthouse Suite of the Europa Hotel.
IFAB is the the only body that can make law changes affecting 209 member associations around the world but any changes will not be made until the 129th IFAB AGM in Belfast at the end of February next year.
Sceptical is probably the right word (on video replays), but we have to do all we can to assist the referee.
Aided, for the first time, by two new advisory panels the Annual Business Meeting threatened to be overshadowed by an extraordinary month involving the game's governing body.
"We ask that you focus on the IFAB, that’s what we are here for." said Priscilla Duncan, FIFA's media relations manager, to journalists and mindful that FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke was braced for a barrage of questions about Michael Garcia and Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert's corruption investigation.
One of the most high-profile items on the agenda followed FIFA president Sepp Blatter's surprise announcement in June that he wanted to see the introduction of video replays for match officials. But, for the idea to become a law, FIFA needs the support of two other IFAB members and the word 'sceptical' was used on several occasions during the post-meeting news conference.
"Sceptical is probably the right word." said Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales. "We have to do all that we can to assist the referee. Any decision needs to be made after long and hard deliberations. We need to come to the right decision and not be in a situation where we make a decision, and then have to reverse that decision soon after."
"It came a little bit left field for all of us." Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive, told Sky Sports News HQ. "We have listened to views of the football advisory and technical panels. It’s an interesting experiment.
"Football is all about opinions and referees make judgement calls. We are concerned that football is a game relying on free flowing movement and we don’t want to see stop-start, stop-start situations. The debate will continue. I remain sceptical.”
"Whether it’s a good idea, or not, I don’t know." said Alex Horne, the outgoing general secretary of the Football Association, after his last IFAB meeting. “Can it ever work and not upset the free flowing nature of the game? I think we all remain pretty sceptical.”
"I don’t think there will be a decision at the next meeting." said Valcke, who would later field a number of questions about FIFA's ‘damaged reputation’. “We have to understand exactly what it (video replays) means and the support for the referees.”
We made some significant progress on rolling substitutes in recreational games. Pilots have been a resounding success and we expect to make a decision on this in the next AGM.
"This was an early debate." said host Patrick Nelson, chief executive of the Irish Football Association. "It’s very early days and there is much more to be considered."
The Irish FA highlighted 'successful trials' of rolling substitutions in the England and Scotland grassroots game.
“We made some significant progress on rolling substitutes in recreational games.” said Nelson. "Pilots have been a resounding success and we expect to make a decision on this in the next AGM. We think it’s a positive move in terms of participation.
"The amateur game can be incredibly competitive. I think 255 different leagues have taken part in that experiment and they have had some very good feedback in terms of the amount of player utility that has been gained from it.
"We like the idea of creating something called ‘recreational football’. It’s definitely amateur, it’s a long way down from senior, competitive, situations. But it’s something defined by individual associations. This is not for the professional game."
Another contentious issue is 'triple punishment', where a player can concede a penalty, receive a red card and suspension for one offence. Too harsh? UEFA president Michel Platini once described the rule as 'stupid'.
“We’ve discussed it a number of times before and it was great to get some additional views on this (from the new advisory panels).” said Nelson. “We had a healthy debate. One thing Pierluigi Collina said is that it is clear that this is an issue that will not go away. We do need to take some action on it.
"The benefit of these panels is to listen to a wide range of stakeholders and bounce ideas off them. We will get closer to resolving that denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity issue and triple punishment.”
IFAB officials have also been discussing whether to simplify interpretations of the offside rule.
"There was a suggestion that, perhaps, we might have overcomplicated it for referees.” said Regan. “There is a view that we, perhaps, need to review the wording. We are all keen that referees, fans, players and clubs understand what the offside rule is all about.”
We are all keen that referees, fans, players and clubs understand what the offside rule is all about.
Following two days of talks the majority of officials picked up their suitcases and dashed off to Belfast City and Belfast International airports for their flights home.
They have until 1 December to submit any further ideas for consideration by IFAB. The game's lawmakers return to Northern Ireland for the annual general meeting between 27 February and 1 March next year.
