Referee experiment continues in Cyprus

The innovative experiment with five match officials has continued in a UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round mini-tournament in Cyprus with former top referees on hand to witness the test.

Behind the goalline
In addition to the match referee and two assistant referees on the touchline, two extra assistants are situated behind the goalline to focus on incidents that happen in the penalty area, such as fouls or misconduct. The tests follow approval by football's lawmakers, the International Football Association Board, last spring. UEFA President Michel Platini and General Secretary David Taylor watched the tests in person at another U19 mini-tournament in Slovenia last month.

Scottish and French referee teams
Scottish referee Douglas McDonald, two assistants Graham Chambers and Derek Rose, and two additional referees Calum Murray and Iain Brines officiated at the 1-1 draw between Cyprus and the Czech Republic. In the game between Denmark and Georgia, which ended in a 2-2 draw, the five match officials were French – referee Tony Chapron, assistant referees David Benech and Emmanuel Boisdenghein, and additional referee Olivier Thual and Said Ennjimi

Top-level supervision

The two games were supervised by former top-level international referees Hugh Dallas (Scotland), Urs Meier (Switzerland), Marc Batta (France), Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark) and Vitor Manuel Pereira (Portugal). "This will be the third tournament where we have conducted this trial," said Dallas who, together with Marc Batta, is a member of the UEFA Referees Committee. "So far it has been very successful. The main aim of it is to assist with more control of the penalty area – and in general to assist the referee, because we know the penalty area is obviously where the most incidents happen."

Better control
French referee Chapron said the experiment gave the referees better control over an area over which they usually had less control. "Consequently, we felt greater comfort in the decisions that we were taking," he said. "Of course, we must remember that because we are able to have better control, this does not mean that errors will not be made - but the number of mistakes are limited considerably."