by Martin Rødvand on July 21, 2010
At a meeting of the International Football Association Board on Wednesday, approval was given for a number of competitions to use additional assistant referees. In May, Ifab approved a two-year trial where federations could trial the experiment in competitions of their choice given they followed the guidelines provided by Ifab.
Uefa announced soon after that they would request a trial for both of their club tournaments in addition to the Euro 2012 qualifiers and final competition.
Fifa also confirmed that the issue of goal-line technology will be on the agenda of Ifab’s next meeting in October 2010.
Competitions where the AAR experiment has been approved:
Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
AFC President’s Cup 2010 (24-26 September)
Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF)
Campeonato Baiano de Futebol Feminino 2010 (Sept-Dec 2010)
Campeonato Carioca de 2011
Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF)
Torneo Clausura 2011
Torneo Apertura 2011
Torneo Clausura 2012
Fédération Française de Football (FFF)
Coupe de la Ligue 2010/2011 (League Cup)
Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA)
UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012
UEFA Europa League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012
UEFA Super Cup 2010 and 2011.
The experiment is currently not being applied to national team competitions.
by Martin Rødvand on May 27, 2010
Uefa’s executive committee today decided that the experiment with additional assistant referees will be implemented in the upcoming season of the Champions League and all the qualification matches for the 2012 European Championship. The experiment will also continue in the Europa League.
Champions League will see the additional assistants in the last qualifying phase as well as the group stage and final stages of the main tournament. In Europa League it will be from the group stage. The two extra officials will also be used in all qualifying matches to the Euro 2010, as well as the final tournament. The Super Cup match between Inter and Atletico Madrid will also get the extra manpower.
This is the first major change to the referee structure in a continental tournament since the introduction of the fourth official in the 1994 World Cup.
The experiment is a pet project of Uefa president Michel Platini and last season Uefa trialled it in the Europa League. In the last meeting of the Ifab, the experiment was extended for another two years, with each football association getting the option to implement it.
The additional assistant referees are positioned on the far side of each assistant referee, next to the goal. They communicate with the referee through microphone and they are also equipped with buzzers, similar to what the assistant referees use on their flags.
