September 28, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 15, 1428

ISTANBUL, Sept 27: UEFA president Michel Platini on Thursday ruled out the introduction of video replays to solve controverisal calls in football games but said he favoured the eventual use of goal-line technology.

Platini was speaking after chairing a two-day meeting of the executive committee of European football’s top body here.

“Football must remain human, but we must also try to limit mistakes,” said Platini, who insisted that he was “totally opposed” to the use of instant video replay which has been widespread in rugby for many years.

The French football legend believes that the solution to controversial calls would be to have “two additional assistant referees to keep a watch on the penalty areas”.

But he said that he was not against a system to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal line, similar to Hawk-Eye used in tennis and cricket.

Platini, meanwhile, reiterated his concern over the growing role of money in football, citing in particular “foreigners who come and buy clubs in England just to get richer”.

“Of course they (the English) can do what they want, but it is dangerous,” he warned.

Platini wrote last week to European leaders, warning against “the malign and ever-present influence of money” in the sport, whose “main purpose has always been to win trophies”.

UEFA, meanwhile, also approved the procedure for the draw for the Euro 2008 finals which will take place on Dec 2 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Hosts Switzerland and Austria will be placed into groups A1 and B1 respectively, and the 14 other teams divided into four pots.

“Pot 1 will comprise reigning European champions Greece if they qualify for the tournament as well as the team with the highest coefficient,” UEFA said in a statement.

“The other teams will then be placed in the three remaining pots based on the coefficient obtained in the qulifying competition of the 2006 FIFA World Cup and for UEFA Euro 2008.” UEFA’s next Executive Committee meeting will take place in Lucerne on Nov 30 and Dec 1, just ahead of the draw.—AFP