FIFA’s biggest bet in recent years, the Club World Cup will have a novelty on the pitch. The referees will use body cameras throughout the tournament, to be played between June 15 and July 13 in the United States, to offer “a new experience” to fans.
The idea was approved, on a test, by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the guardian entity of football rules.
“It is a great opportunity to offer the public a new experience, with images from an angle never seen before,” explained Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA arbitration committee.
Collina indicated that some of the images caught by the cameras of the referees will be displayed on the big screens. But it gave no details about how this will happen. He stressed that the device coupled to the judges could help with future training to raise the quality of arbitration performance.
“It also serves for referee training, because being able to see what the referee sees is important in post-game analysis, to evaluate how a decision has been made. It is a combination of innovation for transmissions and technical improvement,” said the former Italian referee.
The new, which will bring together 32 teams over a month in the middle of the year, is considered by. And the visibility that the tournament will attract already worries those responsible for global arbitration.
“It will be a very, very interesting competition. This is the first time the best clubs in the world, every corner of the planet, will be gathered,” said Collina. “That’s why I say it’s an extra responsibility for us, for arbitration, because we want our referees to be ready in the best conditions when the tournament begins. We know that a high level of arbitration is essential to the success of the competition.”
Collina warned that she has been following the performances of the world’s leading referees, thinking about the future call for.
“Throughout a new competition, the chosen referees will have the privilege of being part of this for the first time. I am sure that everyone will be very happy with the call. The monitor constantly the performance of the referees in their domestic leagues and international competitions. We follow their fitness and health,” he said.
