News - IFAB Meeting - Cardiff  21 July 2010 A meeting was held of the IFAB in Cardiff today, Wednesday 21st July 2010. Below is a media release from the meeting.  IFAB approves additional assistant referee experiment for various competitionsThe Technical Sub-Committee of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) approved several requests from member associations and confederations to implement the experiment with two additional assistant referees during the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons at a meeting held today, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 in Cardiff, Wales. The full list of approved requests can be found below At a previous Special Meeting of the IFAB held in Zurich on 18 May 2010, the Board had reviewed the experiment with two additional assistant referees that was carried out in the 2009/2010 UEFA Europa League, and had decided to continue the experiment until the 126th IFAB Annual General Meeting in 2012, but not to limit it to a single confederation. Therefore, confederations and member associations wishing to conduct this experiment were invited to inform IFAB of their interest for a decision to be taken at the meeting of the Technical Sub-Committee in Wales. Four basic criteria had been established in order to approve the experiment:1. The experiment must be conducted in member associations’ professional leagues and competitions or at confederation level (club competitions only).2. The experiment must be completed in time to allow a decision to be taken in 2012.3. The additional costs incurred by conducting such an experiment must be covered by therelevant league, member association or confederation.4. It is mandatory for all matches in the applicable competition to be officiated with two additional assistant referees.Based on these criteria, the following requests were approved, provided that the protocol established by the IFAB for the experiment is followed: Asian Football Confederation (AFC): AFC President’s Cup 2010 (24-26 September)Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF): Campeonato Baiano de Futebol Feminino 2010 (Sept-Dec 2010), Campeonato Carioca de 2011Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF): Torneo Clausura 2011, Torneo Apertura 2011 and Torneo Clausura 2012Fédération Française de Football (FFF): Coupe de la Ligue 2010/2011 (League Cup) Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA): UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, UEFA Europa League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, and UEFA Super Cup 2010 and 2011.Also approved, but pending confirmation of the specific competitions, were official competitions of the Federação Baiana, the Federação Paulista and Federação Pernambucana in Brazil.Finally, FIFA and the Technical Sub-Committee confirmed that goal-line technology will be on the agenda of the next Annual Business Meeting of the IFAB in October 2010.       Pierluigi Collina Takes On New Role

The former referee Pierluigi Collina believes Uefa's experiment with using goalline assistants should be continued. The 50-year-old has left his job as head of Italian officials to take up a similar role organising referees for European football's governing body, he will now become head of refereeing at UEFA. "I've decided to leave my role because I have received an important offer from Uefa," said Collina, who retired from refereeing in 2005.Incidents at the World Cup, including Frank Lampard "ghost goal" in England's second-round match with Germany, have forced the authorities to reconsider the idea of using technology to clear up controversial decisions.Uefa tested placing an extra official on each goalline in last season's Europa League to check for infringements in the area and whether the ball crossed the line. Collina backs that plan rather than a goalline camera or an electronic chip inside the ball."People have said that in last season's Europa League there were no controversial calls but I think it is exactly because of the extra officials in the area," he said. "I think that some of the shock cases seen in the World Cup would have been avoided."

Centre Of Refereeing Excellence - C.O.R.E

The UEFA C.O.R.E scheme will commence later this year a team will be travelling to UEFA headquarters 28th Sept 2010 for a two week introductory course, where they will be advised on
- Match Prep
- Player Management
- Match Control
- Tactical Awareness
- Fitness Training combined with Practical Exercises and Mental Prep.
During this course each participant will officiate at two Swiss or French championship matches. 
 At the end of the course they will be setting personal objectives in terms of refereeing technique, match control, fitness and English.
There is also a consolidation course which will take place in May 2011, for one week. The trio will be going back on the 10th.
 This course is to measure and evaluate progress made in their national leagues and to re-inforce previous training. And to further develop areas such as body language, injury prevention and stress management.
 At the end of the two courses those participants who satisfy all of the objectives of both courses will receive the UEFA CORE diploma of achievement. Those who do not, will only receive a certificate of attendance. 
 The team, along with teams of officials from Switzerland, Holland, Montenegro, Liechtenstein, Faroe Isle, Estonia and Belarus will be led by Course Leader David Elleray, with fellow UEFA Referee Committee Member Jaap Uilenberg as his deputy and Phil Sharp (England) as AR instructor. The Senior Referee Coach is Manuel Lopez, and there will also be Referee Coaches from Finland, Russia and Scotland, as well as fitness coach Niels do Vries and an assistant fitness coach from Bulgaria.