FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Tuesday that world football's governing body was planning a refereeing revamp as he reiterated his reservations concerning the use of goal-line technology. “The principle work in football now, I already said it before the World Cup, is refereeing,” Blatter said on the German Football Federation (DFB) website. “End October-beginning November, we're going to unveil our project on high level referees. There will be a rejuvenation ... I am for professionalisation, even if there are views against.” He added: “Concerning the help of technical means, it's more complicated. Every system must be studied in detail with a view to an eventual use.” Goal-line technology was forced back onto FIFA's agenda during the World Cup after England's Frank Lampard had a legitimate goal disallowed, while Mexico were aggrieved when Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez was clearly offside when he scored the first goal. That incident was made worse when a replay was shown on the big screen at the stadium. Blatter later apologised for both incidents. Blatter believes top international referees should be younger. “The World Cup shouldn't be there so that someone the other side of 40 has to quickly get another game,” Blatter was quoted as saying. FIFA has a mandatory retirement age of 45 for referees. The two youngest referees who officiated matches in South Africa, both in their early 30s, were rated highly enough to be given control of the two semifinals. The final was handled by England's Howard Webb, then 38, who took extended leave from his job as a policeman to be a professional in the Premier League. “I am also for professional referees, even though I know that there are other opinions on that,” Blatter said. Meanwhile, the Swedish FA has asked its top clubs to consider allowing fourth officials to watch live television pictures to avoid the refereeing mistakes seen at the World Cup, chairman Lars-Ake Lagrell said Tuesday. Lagrell said he would like the officials to be able to watch the television pictures viewers see at home but ruled out introducing goalline technology and video replays. He has presented the idea to Sweden's top-flight clubs and if they agree, the FA would then need to get approval from world soccer's governing body FIFA to implement the plan. “We don't think that we will ever have them (goalline cameras) in football as it means too many breaks in play, studying film and so on,” Lagrell said in an interview at the Swedish FA's headquarters. “But we have seen another possibility that we can ask to be a trial country for, and that is to use the regular TV signal. “We think that it (goalline technology) is a worse alternative than simply giving the fourth official the possibility to look at the TV pictures. “With that (use of the live television pictures), you have a team of officials who referee the game exactly as it is today, but this way they get something to help them.” Swedish referee Martin Hansson was widely criticised for missing Thierry Henry's handball in the lead-up to a French goal that denied Ireland a place at this year's World Cup. Lagrell said this could have been avoided by watching the TV pictures. “That particular problem could have been solved using this system,” he said.
