LONDON: Pierluigi Collina has once again come out in support of additional assistant referee at the side of the goal as he says “sharing control is better.”

Collina was speaking to reporters and delegates at Stamford Bridge on certain issues on the pitch, one of which is the advent of goal-line technology which is soon to be seen in football.

But UEFA’s Chief Refereeing Officer stuck to the party line when he said: “I think that the position of UEFA is clear to everybody. Certainly the additional assistant referee could be very helpful in deciding incidents in the penalty area; goal-line technology certainly cannot.

“Goal-line technology cannot say one single word about an incident in the penalty area. They [assistants] can do, they are in a better position they can see incident from a different angle.

“It can really support the referee or he can see something that is happening away from the play, but something can happen away with a player fouling the defender so sharing control on what is going in the penalty area during the play or mainly at set pieces.”

The former World Cup Final referee said it was difficult to expect one single man to focus attention on all the aspects of play at free-kicks or set-pieces. “Sharing control is definitely better,” he added.

Collina conceded that the criticism of the assistants stemmed  from the fact that they were not permitted by the International Board to make any movement when  they see an infringement of the rules.

He said: “You cannot see them shouting in the microphones at the referee but we recorded them at Euro 2012. We recorded because we felt the cooperation is often unknown. They didn’t know they were shouting in the referee’s ear.”

 CHRISTIAN RADNEDGE

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