Legends absent from FIFA 2014 task force meeting

By foxsports
Published

Lacking Franz Beckenbauer and Pele to lead the team, FIFA's task force dedicated to improving football before the 2014 World Cup kicked off slowly Tuesday.

Beckenbauer, the task force chairman, was absent because of a back injury while Pele, his deputy and former New York Cosmos teammate, was double-booked with an engagement in Mexico.

''Pele is the king and the king has sometimes his own calendar,'' FIFA President Sepp Blatter said after the panel's first meeting.

The 22-member group was missing a third World Cup winner, after England's Bobby Charlton resisted FIFA's attempts to persuade him to attend.

Blatter created the task force because he was unhappy at the quality of matches and entertainment at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

He appointed Beckenbauer, who captained and coached World Cup-winning West Germany teams, to lead experts including former players, World Cup referees and current administrators.

Their brief also includes monitoring tests with goal-line technology and five match officials, and potential changes to how World Cup matches are decided.

The debut meeting was led by Zambian great Kalusha Bwalya and assisted by United States Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati.

It recommended allowing teams to use a fourth substitute in extra time, with a particular need in youth competitions.

The panel wants extra time to be abolished in FIFA under-17 tournaments, with penalty shootouts to decide matches that are level after 90 minutes.

Options for deciding World Cup knockout matches and allocating points in group-stage games will be discussed at a future meeting. The group said it wanted any changes to apply across all FIFA competitions.

The so-called ''triple punishment'' - when players conceding a penalty are shown a red card that also incurs a one-match suspension - also could be changed. The panel believes some penalty-box fouls should be punished only with a yellow card.

The task force also believes refereeing should be a professional job and more women coaches and match officials should be encouraged into football.

Beckenbauer is scheduled to brief FIFA's congress of 208 members on his group's work next month.