Collina admits mistake over Ukraine 'goal'
Reuters - Wednesday 20 June 2012, 15:08
Head of referees Pierluigi
Collina defended UEFA's experimental system of extra goal-line
officials on Wednesday but admitted to an "unfortunate mistake"
that controversially helped eliminate Ukraine from Euro 2012.
In a tournament heavy on goals and drama but relatively free
of debatable decisions, Marco Devic's disallowed effort against
England on Tuesday, which television replays suggested may have
crossed the line, prompted outrage from the hosts.
The goal may not have saved Ukraine from elimination anyway
but the referee in charge of the game, Hungary's Viktor Kassai,
was one of four sent home on Wednesday as part of a standard
pruning of officials before the quarter-finals.
Collina said it would have been "unfair" to expose Kassai to
additional pressure following the row, which has prompted
renewed calls for the introduction of goalline technology.
The bald-headed Italian, the game's best-known official
before his retirement in 2005, insisted the decision did not
undermine a system of extra officials which has been on trial in
the Champions League and elsewhere for three years.
"This was human mistake made by a human being. Nevertheless
this is the only problem we had with this experiment in roughly
1000 matches played," Collina said.
"[At Euro 2012] we had three goalline situations. Two of
them were absolutely correct, the third was unfortunately wrong.
Being wrong is one thing, saying that the ball was half a metre
over is another and you know it. The ball was centimetres [over]."
He refused to be drawn on the case for introducing
technology which proponents argue would remove the element of
human error.
"The simple answer to that is that it is not for UEFA to
decide. There is a meeting of the IFAB (International Football
Association Board) on July 5," UEFA General Secretary Gianni
Infantino told the same news conference.
"We do what we can. We think that in addition to seeing or
not seeing the goal, the additional referee gives a lot of help.
The fact that a mistake happened last night, the night before
this press conference, is bad luck, but it should not hinder us
in our very positive assessment of the last three years.
"We will see what the IFAB decides and we will see which
leagues implement it if they do. But for the moment we have not
seen any 100 percent success rate so far on any goal-line
technology," Infantino added.