Europa League to Host Referee Experiments
By: Dan | June 3rd, 2009
If you have not seen Daryl’s entry on the front page, UEFA has declared that their experiments with two extra officials, placed behind the goals, will take place during the Europa League next season.
Any experiment, to move beyond theory, will have to be tested in the real world at some point. Running these tests over the course of a highly competitive, season long tournament simply makes the most sense if there is going to be a likelihood of having a contentious decision, in a high pressure atmosphere that the extra officials contribute to.
The big question this raises is whether or not making a major tournament a staging ground for a new procedure affects the integrity of the Europa League games. Ultimately, I don’t think this particular situation is an issue. The two extra officials are only serving as additional eyes in an attempt to have all areas of the pitch as closely watched as possible. If UEFA were experimenting with something, like video replay, that would fundamentally alter the structure of the game, there would be cause for alarm and outrage, but this is, thankfully not the case. We’ve already seen the Champions League parachute clubs, the introduction of group stages, and, finally, the Europa League itself. It should be safe to just sit back and wait for the first qualifying round draw on the 22nd.
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