Soccer's governing body is not ready to use two referees on the pitch at the World Cup.
Match officials have come under heavy scrutiny amid the record number of red and yellow cards being issued and a spate of questionable decisions at the World Cup.
Instant TV replays have been ruled out and the introduction of other technology to determine when the ball crosses the goal line has been put on hold, for now, because it is not 100 percent reliable.
FIFA communications director Markus Siegler said trials using two referees in tandem had been undertaken, but it was "not the right path to follow" right now.
"We've carried out tests in the Italian league and cup matches," he told a news conference on Tuesday. "At the moment, it's not an actuality."
The International Football Association Board, which governs the rules of the game, would have to make the decision and any submission would have to be formally made by a national association, Siegler said.
In the meantime, referees, two linesmen and a fourth official communicate via open microphones and headsets.
After 55 of 64 matches at Germany 2006, referees had handed out 25 red cards and 306 yellow cards, both World Cup records.
Russian referee Valentin Ivanov was criticized by FIFA president Sepp Blatter for giving 16 cautions and ejecting four players in Portugal's 1-0 win over Netherlands -- records for a World Cup match.
The FIFA referees committee met yesterday to determine which of the 22 referees will remain after the second round. The list is unlikely to be released before committee head Angel Maria Villar Llona faces a news conference today.
"We don't want this event to be a public tribunal," said Siegler, declining to make any comment about the referees or referee decisions. "It's certainly not that you wish it's dominating the discussion."
The controversy is not harming the TV ratings or keeping the crowds away.
FIFA's TV rights partner, Infront, estimates an accumulated TV audience exceeding 30 billion across the tournament.
Infront managing director Dominik Schmid said about 40 percent of the viewing audience was female, something he could only attribute to "a World Cup phenomenon."
All but one of FIFA's 207 affiliated members had negotiated broadcasting deals with only Turkmenistan, the former Soviet republic of 6 million, not taking official live television pictures.
He said ratings records were being broken even in countries which did not qualify.
Schmid highlighted England's first-round match against Paraguay which had 62.9 million viewers in China -- more than the combined populations of both participating countries.
With crowds at venues at capacity, more than 11 million people have turned to "Fan Zones" in downtown areas of the 12 German cities hosting matches to watch on giant TV screens.
"We're living the biggest football party ever," Siegler said of the popularity of the Fan Zones. "Our expectations have been surpassed."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier