Rehhagel: TV Footage Would Benefit Soccer

Greece's victorious Euro 2004 coach Otto Rehhagel believes FIFA should introduce television coverage to analyze referees and their decisions. "Why should we not welcome the use of technology?" asked German Rehhagel. "It would allow things to be established straight away and we just need to get used to little breaks in our game. That is the case in other sports." The German Football Federation (DFB) has made an official request for FIFA, soccer's world governing body, to start using video coverage to observe officials and analyze incidents such as whether the ball crosses the goal-line. The request was a response to the scandal in which Berlin referee Robert Hoyzer recently admitting to fixing four matches for financial gain. But Oliver Bierhoff, assistant coach of the German national team, said technology is not the answer to the problem. "I think we should do without video evidence," said Bierhoff. "The game needs to flow and it is difficult to say where you begin and end with the whole video coverage. There will always be mistakes in football." FIFA president Sepp Blatter expressed similar sentiments: "As long as I am FIFA president there will not be video coverage. Football is a game for the people. Players, managers and referees are only human and make mistakes."