Phil Dowd failed to award Wigan a clear penaltyFOOTBALL'S governing bodies are considering a bizarre concept of using FIVE officials for every football match. New UEFA president Michel Platini has suggested that the introduction of two refs to patrol the penalty areas would improve the game.The idea has been proposed to rid the game of decisions such as those that marred Arsenal's controverisal victory over Wigan on Sunday. Ref Phil Dowd failed to award the Latics a clear penalty when they were already leading - Mathieu Flamini hauling down Emile Hesley.
To make matter worse, Arsenal equalised shortly after when Flamini crossed the ball from a clearly offside position before Fitz Hall diverted it into his own goal. The Gunners went on to win 2-1.
Ex-French ace Platini, 51, may now ask world governing body FIFA to consider using two more refs alongside the main official and the two assistants. It will be discussed at FIFA's board AGM when they meet in Manchester next month. A UEFA spokesman said: "Two more officials would definitely help to clear up misunderstandings.
"Platini does not want to break up the flow of the game with video technology but he is keen to see a new system and possible experiments." Platini has previously said: "We have to help referees who can't see everything and I believe two more assistants on either side of the pitch would do this.
"It would help judging off-side decisions as well as a range of off-the-ball incidents." Platini has dismissed using video technology to aid decisions but is contemplating an idea to follow rugby in only allowing each team's captain to talk directly to the ref.
That would help stop the ugly scenes in Premiership matches when hoardes of players crowd around in the man in black in protest.
