UEFA extends five-official experiment

(GSM) – UEFA is set to extend its five-official experiment to next season’s Champions League and Euro 2012 qualifying matches.

The European governing body limited the experiment to just the Europa League this year but now plans to extend it to the continent’s principal competitions.

The experiment consists of one extra official behind each goal, with the task of assisting the referee when in doubt.

“It is difficult to find something negative in this experiment,” according to UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino.

“We have made this experiment in the Europa League and it went well. Something else must be done to help the referees, you add eyes and you help the referee to cover their ground in a much better way.”

English referee Graham Poll admits that entirely ruling out mistakes seems impossible. “You will always have human error, no matter how many officials you have that element will come in. We either embrace that and get on with it or we say we don’t want that and we use the technological element,” he told BBC Radio.