Talk about shooting the messenger. Soccer's guardians took the cowardly route with their double decision this week to a) set their police on Thierry Henry for his notorious hand ball and b) do absolutely nothing to prevent such cheating from spoiling the next World Cup. Henry's famous fondle, a double hand ball that set up the goal that qualified France for next year's tournament, sent a message heard by everyone around the world except FIFA: Referees cannot keep track of everything in today's ultra-fast game and urgently need additional help - with urgently underlined. The solution is not rocket science. Two extra match officials would do the trick - one stationed next to each goal to provide extra eyes on the area of the pitch where it is most needed. Henry's hand ball almost certainly would have been spotted, Swedish referee Martin Hansson would have been spared the embarrassment of awarding the undeserved goal and Ireland - not France - might have been booking tickets and hotels for South Africa had extra officials been at the Nov. 18 World Cup playoff. Refereeing reinforcements have already been introduced to the Europa League, the Champions League's cousin, without the soccer world spinning off its axis. So how hard can this be? Let's set up a committee to study it, commission reports, consult experts, basically fiddle while soccer burns. In short, do a FIFA. The governing body of world soccer is turning timidity into an art form. The fact that FIFA president Sepp Blatter himself recognizes that referees are currently being outgunned only makes its procrastination more unbearable. "It's clear that the main match official and his assistants cannot see everything that happens on the field of play," Blatter said Wednesday after FIFA rejected the use of extra officials in South Africa. "Is it better to have more match officials or open the door to technology? We will have to evaluate this." Blatter's argument that there is too little time between now and next June to introduce extra officials is lame. Are we really to believe that an organization as rich and powerful as FIFA couldn't round up three or four dozen additional people for the 64 matches that will be played next June and July? If world soccer is so desperately short of qualified officials then clearly FIFA hasn't been doing its job. UEFA is employing two extra officials at all 144 matches in the group stage of the Europa League this season without having to press gang people off the street. One of the stumbling blocks to innovation in soccer is the philosophy that any changes to the game's rules must be applicable worldwide, to all levels of soccer. That admirable principle of universality is worth defending if soccer is to remain a sport for all, as playable on a dusty field in Africa as on the billiard-green pitch at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. But it's also true that the stakes in World Cup games are far higher, with national prestige and well-being and mounds of money on the line. The fact that extra referees or video replays might not be available for amateur matches in a London park or a Brazilian shantytown shouldn't bar their introduction at the very top of soccer. To argue otherwise is akin to saying that doctors will no longer perform transplants because there aren't enough donated kidneys or hearts for all those who need them. FIFA's dilly-dallying also does soccer the disservice of leaving room for growing calls for video replays. Video is not the answer because, unlike extra officials, it could never be applied across all or many levels of the game, it would most likely hold up play and, as Blatter rightly points out, would take away some of soccer's endearing human qualities. It is said "with technology that all our problems would be over," notes Roy Hodgson, manager of Premier League side Fulham. "But it is not even as simple as that." Given FIFA's indecision, its belated decision to open a disciplinary case against Henry for handling the ball looks like a diversionary tactic and misses the point entirely. --- John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org.
