PANAMA CITY: FIFA president Sepp Blatter has some persuasion work ahead of him in the heart of the world federation in pushing his idea for video challenges during games.

Blatter, head of the world federation since 1998, told FIFA Congress in Sao Paulo in June that team managers should be allowed to refer to a TV monitor to challenge a referee’s decision once or twice during a match.

He repeated his support for the ideas in a video message to the Soccer Global Convention in Manchester this past week.

However secretary-general Jerome Valcke, attending the first of a series of World Cup technical reviews in Panama, said he thought the use of video would diminish the essence of football.

Valcke, after praising the introduction of goal-line technology at the finals in Brazil, said: “The World Cup is a laboratory where we can test new technology, new ideas, but I’m against the use of video replay. I think the goal-line technology is the maximum we should use in a game in order not to destroy the beauty, the speed and the nature of the games.”

Blatter had suggested a video replay system might be tested next year at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.

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