Euro 2012: UEFA's Collina admits mistake over Ukraine 'goal'
In a tournament heavy on goals and drama but relatively free of debatable decisions, Marco Devic's disallowed effort against England on Tuesday (early Wednesday, PHL time), 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 quarterfinals.
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 goal-line 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 goal-line situations. Two of them were absolutely correct, the third was unfortunately wrong. Being wrong is one thing, saying that the ball was half a meter over is another and you know it. The ball was centimeters [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. - Reuters
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/06/20/euro-2012-ukraine-was-denied-a-goal-vs-england-chief-referee-admits/
Euro 2012
Euro 2012: Ukraine denied a goal vs. England, chief referee admits
Jun 20, 2012 – 11:05 AM ET | Last Updated: Jun 20, 2012 11:30 AM ET
UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina on Wednesday said that a Ukraine effort ruled out against England in their final Euro 2012 Group D match for not crossing the goal line should have been given.
WARSAW — UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina on Wednesday said that a Ukraine effort ruled out against England in their final Euro 2012 Group D match for not crossing the goal line should have been given.
Collina’s assessment and outrage in Ukraine have once again opened the debate about the introduction of goal-line technology that world governing body FIFA is in favour of but its European counterparts UEFA is against.
“The ball crossed the line. That was unfortunate,” Collina told a news conference in the Polish capital, Warsaw, the day after the Group D match in Donetsk that England won 1-0.
Collina blamed human error for the “wrong” call but said decisions on two similar incidents in the 24 matches so far played in the tournament — in the Germany-Portugal and Italy-Croatia group matches — had been correct.
The incident arose in the 62nd minute of the game with the score at 1-0, when Ukraine’s Marko Devic forced England’s Joe Hart into a save and the ball looped back over the goalkeeper towards the net.
Defender John Terry acrobatically leapt to clear the ball from under the bar. Television replays indicated the ball crossed the line but Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai — advised by an assistant referee on the line — waved play on.
England kept their one-goal lead and advanced to a quarter-final meeting with Italy. Ukraine were eliminated, although a draw would still not have been enough to take them through.
Kassai’s decision was greeted with dismay in Ukraine.
“The result of the match turned on a gross error by the officials who didn’t give the Ukrainian goal,” Ukraine’s Sport-Express newspaper said on its website.
“And it all happened with five officials, two of whom were in charge of seeing whether a ball crosses the line.”
FIFA is trialling two prototypes of goal-line technology and a decision is expected on its introduction when the organisation’s rules body, the International Football Association Board, meets in Kiev in July.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter on Wednesday: “After last night’s match #GLT (goal-line technology) is no longer an alternative but a necessity.”
His UEFA counterpart Michel Platini, however, said this week that the five officials being used in Euro 2012 were enough to prevent any controversial decisions.
Collina tried to put the Ukraine incident into context, saying the five officials system had been trialled successfully over “thousands of matches” in European domestic competitions.
“This is the only problem we have had,” he said. “It’s one negative decision in three years of Champions League and two years of Europa League and 24 matches in the Euro,” he told reporters.
“I would be very happy to know if the same questions would have been asked without yesterday’s decision.”
UEFA secretary-general Gianni Infantino added: “It’s one error in 1,000 cases in three years of experiments with five officials. It’s human error, by centimetres, but from our point of view as a whole over three years, it’s very positive.”
Collina said the decision was not a reflection on Kassai’s overall performance, even though he has not been retained for the rest of the tournament, and revealed officials had a 95.7 percent accuracy rate in calling offside in the group stages.
He said the correct call was made for three disputed goals: one by Spain’s Jesus Navas in their 1-0 win against Croatia and two by Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal’s 2-1 win against the Netherlands.
“They were two very, very difficult decisions taken by the assistant referees: from the first pass, (Andres) Iniesta was level. Navas was behind the line with the goal. The two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo were very difficult decisions,” he added.
But a goal by Greece against the Czech Republic should not have been disallowed for offside, Collina said, again blaming “human error
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/06/20/euro-2012-ukraine-was-denied-a-goal-vs-england-chief-referee-admits/
Euro 2012
Euro 2012: Ukraine denied a goal vs. England, chief referee admits
Jun 20, 2012 – 11:05 AM ET | Last Updated: Jun 20, 2012 11:30 AM ET
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images
UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina on Wednesday said that a Ukraine effort ruled out against England in their final Euro 2012 Group D match for not crossing the goal line should have been given.Collina’s assessment and outrage in Ukraine have once again opened the debate about the introduction of goal-line technology that world governing body FIFA is in favour of but its European counterparts UEFA is against.
“The ball crossed the line. That was unfortunate,” Collina told a news conference in the Polish capital, Warsaw, the day after the Group D match in Donetsk that England won 1-0.
Collina blamed human error for the “wrong” call but said decisions on two similar incidents in the 24 matches so far played in the tournament — in the Germany-Portugal and Italy-Croatia group matches — had been correct.
The incident arose in the 62nd minute of the game with the score at 1-0, when Ukraine’s Marko Devic forced England’s Joe Hart into a save and the ball looped back over the goalkeeper towards the net.
Defender John Terry acrobatically leapt to clear the ball from under the bar. Television replays indicated the ball crossed the line but Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai — advised by an assistant referee on the line — waved play on.
England kept their one-goal lead and advanced to a quarter-final meeting with Italy. Ukraine were eliminated, although a draw would still not have been enough to take them through.
Kassai’s decision was greeted with dismay in Ukraine.
“The result of the match turned on a gross error by the officials who didn’t give the Ukrainian goal,” Ukraine’s Sport-Express newspaper said on its website.
“And it all happened with five officials, two of whom were in charge of seeing whether a ball crosses the line.”
FIFA is trialling two prototypes of goal-line technology and a decision is expected on its introduction when the organisation’s rules body, the International Football Association Board, meets in Kiev in July.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter on Wednesday: “After last night’s match #GLT (goal-line technology) is no longer an alternative but a necessity.”
His UEFA counterpart Michel Platini, however, said this week that the five officials being used in Euro 2012 were enough to prevent any controversial decisions.
Collina tried to put the Ukraine incident into context, saying the five officials system had been trialled successfully over “thousands of matches” in European domestic competitions.
“This is the only problem we have had,” he said. “It’s one negative decision in three years of Champions League and two years of Europa League and 24 matches in the Euro,” he told reporters.
“I would be very happy to know if the same questions would have been asked without yesterday’s decision.”
UEFA secretary-general Gianni Infantino added: “It’s one error in 1,000 cases in three years of experiments with five officials. It’s human error, by centimetres, but from our point of view as a whole over three years, it’s very positive.”
Collina said the decision was not a reflection on Kassai’s overall performance, even though he has not been retained for the rest of the tournament, and revealed officials had a 95.7 percent accuracy rate in calling offside in the group stages.
He said the correct call was made for three disputed goals: one by Spain’s Jesus Navas in their 1-0 win against Croatia and two by Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal’s 2-1 win against the Netherlands.
“They were two very, very difficult decisions taken by the assistant referees: from the first pass, (Andres) Iniesta was level. Navas was behind the line with the goal. The two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo were very difficult decisions,” he added.
But a goal by Greece against the Czech Republic should not have been disallowed for offside, Collina said, again blaming “human error”.
Posted in: Euro 2012, Soccer, Sports Tags: Group D
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