Читать книгу Geoff Hurst, the Hand of God and the Biggest Rows in World Football - Graham Poll - Страница 17

FROM the year 2000, to reduce ‘Ye-es’ moments, FIFA imposed some additional, standardized instructions for assistant referees.

If the ref signals for a foul near the penalty area and the assistant is sure it wasoutside the box, the assistant should take an exaggerated step towards the halfway line. If the assistant is certain the foul wasinside the area, he should run towards the corner flag.

FIFA do not want referees going over to talk to assistants, because that would look as if the ref is unsure about the decision and the players would surround the officials to have their say.

In my autobiography,Seeing Red, I recount an incident just like that in Euro 2000. I took charge of a match between the Czech Republic and France on 16 June in Bruges. Despite those careful, homogenized instructions on what to do about penalty decisions, I still went over to my assistant, Eddie Foley from Cork, to find out what had happened. We gave a penalty instead of a free-kick outside the area. We got the decision wrong. And UEFA were not happy that I had ignored the directive.