Source: Telegraph
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson backs referee standards
Hodgson has warned against trying to make football "perfect" - and pointed out England may well have not won the World Cup had video technology been around in 1966. [LNB]There will be five officials at work during tonight's game as part of the continuing experiment, but that will not be used at the World Cup finals after Fifa yesterday rejected a proposal to fast-track it to South Africa. [LNB] Related ArticlesFulham v CSKA Sofia: match previewRiise: five refs at World Cup is unnecessaryCSKA Sofia coach will miss Fulham clashThere is to be an inquiry into whether technology or extra officials should be brought in in a bid to avoid controversy such as Thierry Henry's handball in the build-up to France's crucial strike in their play-off against the Republic of Ireland. [LNB]Fulham have suffered some controversial decisions in europe this season. They were denied two penalty claims away to CSKA Sofia while having two men sent off at Roma. And Stephen Kelly was in the home tie against the Italians after the referee showed the red card to the wrong player. [LNB]"One of the hardest jobs on the football field is that of a referee," said Hodgson. [LNB]"The standard of refereeing today compared to 30 years ago is much, much better. I don't really understand this unbelievable search for perfection. [LNB]"When I first started playing, we had no way of checking these things - and a linesman made a decision in 1966 which certainly worked in our favour. [LNB]"Maybe these things have always existed, we just did not know about them. The major problem today is the consequences of what, unfortunately, turns out to be a bad decision, and it is pretty obvious what those were in terms of Ireland against France. [LNB]"We have just got to constantly strive to get to a situation where a referee makes as few mistakes as possible, constantly work on them in terms of their understanding of the game and their fitness and I really think that is happening. [LNB]"An area that could be debated is whether players themselves, when something has gone diabolically wrong, could help the referee out and not just keep their mouths shut. [LNB]"If one of our players gets fouled in the box and it is clear to him that he wasn't fouled and was just unbalanced he could tell the referee not to award a penalty." [LNB]Fulham need a win tonight to set up another must win game in Switzerland, against FC Basle in a fortnight. Tonight Hodgson is without Erik Nevland, Paul Konchesky and Jonathan Greening through suspension, while Andrew Johnson, Dickson Etuhu and Diomansy Kamara are injured. [LNB]
