Before the start of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the World Football governing body introduced a set of new changes across different areas.
Key among those came under the refereeing docket with an aim of enhancing efficiency in decision making but also creating better experience for the fans.
Some of the introductions included advanced semi-automated offside technology, the eight second rule for goalkeepers and referees wearing body cameras.
Legendary referee Pierluigi Collina who currently serves as the Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, says that he is very happy with the refereeing innovations.
About the body cameras, Collina indicated, “The outcome of using the ref cam here at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 went beyond our expectations. We thought it would have been an interesting experience for TV viewers and we’ve received great comments,” said Mr Collina. “We were asked: ‘Why not in all the matches?’ and even more: ‘Why not in all sports?’“
He added that, while it provided enjoyment for the public, it was also “very, very positive” for FIFA’s own purposes. “We had the possibility to see what the referee sees on the field of play. And this was not only for entertainment purposes, but also for coaching the referees (and) to explain why something was not seen on the field of play.”
On the eight-second rule, Collina believes this helped in keeping the tempo of the game continuing instead of goalkeepers wasting a lot of time.
It was very successful; the tempo of the match was improved. We had no time lost by goalkeepers keeping the ball between their hands for a very long time – as happened quite often in matches before,” said Mr Collina, adding that violations were kept to a minimum with the new law.
“The fact that only two goalkeepers were punished means that they really respected the rule. And by doing that, we achieved the purpose that we wanted, which was not to give corner kicks, but prevent the eight seconds rule from being not respected. The purpose was 100% achieved.”
An advanced version of the semi-automated offside technology helped speed up the decisions for offside situations and Mr Collina said this helped avoid situations where forwards run 30 to 40 metres only for the flag to be raised at the end. “The alert went to the assistant referees well before, when there was a clear offside position. So, it worked very well, we have the goals disallowed, correctly disallowed; we also had correct decisions supported by the semi-automatic offside technology – [we are] very happy, very pleased,” Mr Collina said.
The tournament comes to an end on Sunday at the MetLife Stadium as PSG take on Chelsea in the final.