Blatter late than never

FIFA President Sepp Blatter
Courtesy: bbc.co.uk


If FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s statement to the worldwide media today is any indication, it would appear that the disallowed goal chronicled in yesterday’s post “No Goal! How a referee ruined England vs. Germany” might prove to be the tipping point FIFA needed to make a change to its policies regarding on-field instant replay.
According to the Associated Press, Blatter not only said that “something has to be changed” regarding FIFA’s stance toward on-field technology and apologized to English soccer representatives for any disservice done by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda, but also suspended Larrionda for the remainder of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
“It is obvious after the experience so far in this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to open the file of technology at the business meeting of the international FA board in July,” Blatter said in his statement. “The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goal-line technology.”
This news comes perhaps one World Cup too late for the English, but is encouraging nonetheless. It shows that after years of flat-out dismissal of the topic, worldwide media pressure has finally convinced Blatter to undergo the process of making a vital change.
Some might point to a further need for review of important offsides calls missed by the referee or his linesmen, but Blatter’s assurances that he is looking into goal-line replay are enough to get the staff here at “Chris Miller’s JMC Odyssey” off his case for the moment.