Jack praises match officials

HELSINKI: FIFA vice president Jack Warner has commended the selection of match officials for the 10th Under-17 World Championship which starts tomorrow in Finland with the hosts playing China in the opening match.

Warner was speaking at a press conference at the Hilton Helsinki Strand Hotel yesterday to mark the opening of the tournament which follows the last one hosted by Trinidad and Tobago two years ago. While TT’s Under-17 team is not at the finals, this country does have a representative in referee Richard Piper. Warner commented on the selection of the match officials. “The FIFA Referees Commit-tee has selected referees who are exceptionally good. That is their first officiating in a FIFA competition. This will help them gain experience for officiating at an even higher level in the near future,” he said. “In many ways, it is the tournament of the ‘firsts’. First time this competition is being played in Finland, first time artificial turfs are being used for a FIFA final tournament, including the final itself, first time Yemen and Sierra Leone will participate in a  FIFA competition,” said Warner.

“It is an honour for me to be here in Finland and represent FIFA for the 10th Under-17 World Championship. I’m very much looking forward to an exciting event and I thank the media for helping make this event a success,” said the CONCACAF President. Warner also responded to questions on the large number of matches players now have to engage in worldwide. “It’s a complaint which is very selective. We don’t hear it when the biggest clubs tour all around the world, although it does not seem to be for sportive reasons ...” At these finals, an experiment first tested in Trinidad and Tobago will  be repeated. It involves the 9.15m (or 10-yard) rule, where a team that does not respect the regulation distance of a free-kick is sent back a further 10 yards when the kick is retaken. Another new initiative will be introduced in Finland.  Players receiving a yellow card in consecutive matches will not be automatically suspended for the third, as is the case in other FIFA competitions. Here, a third yellow card will be required for a player to receive a suspension for the next match —- a gesture introduced to compensate for the errors of youth. However, unlike in previous tournaments, cards picked up in the first round will be carried over to the knockout stages.