MANCHESTER: Sepp Blatter, once the arch opponent of technology, remains determined to press ahead with coach challenges to referees on disputed decisions writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The president of world federation FIFA, delighted with the take-up on goal-line technology, told wants the likes of Joachim Low, Carlo Ancelotti, Louis Van Gaal and Co offered similar opportunities to tennis superstars such as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

Blatter told FIFA Congress in Sao Paulo in June that team managers should be allowed one or two video-supported challenges during a televised game.

He reiterated his enthusiasm for the idea at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester.

During a keynote analysis of today’s game, Blatter said: “The next step is that I will propose to the International Board , is to try to bring this so-called call that the coaches or the team managers, have the right in each half, twice or once, to challenge a refereeing decision, but only when the game is stopped.

“Then, there must be a television monitor [so] the referee and the coach can go to look at, and then the referee may change his mind – as in tennis, for example.

“Perhaps we will find a league, a professional or semi-professional league, to try to do it. Or in one FIFA competition. We can try in a youth competition like next year when the under-20s are in New Zealand.”

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