To avoid embarrassment of individual referees, overcome the disappointment with lack of goals in the last tournament and to encourage more creative play; FIFA has announced new rules for the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa. Rather than rely on a single referee to control the games FIFA will introduce a panel of judges. They have also removed the requirement of each team to score goals to decide the winner, under the new rules judges will score each player on individual performance during the game with the team scoring highest advancing to the next round.
A spokesman from the Italian Football Federation has welcomed the idea, "It is common sense to award the team on the whole performance during the game rather than rely on the last few minutes. It is ludicrous that the Italian team tried so hard during all their 2006 games to influence the referee throughout the match but were still required to score penalties to ensure progression to the next round and ultimately win the trophy, we are pleased that now the team will be rewarded for all their efforts in every game"
The Portuguese Football Federation agrees "Ronaldo looks pretty and can juggle the ball at his feet, but requiring him to score puts a huge amount of pressure on a one-off move. It is much fairer to award him for his play-acting throughout the game. The England game at the last World Cup was a great example where all of Ronaldo's efforts to get Rooney set off would have resulted in nothing if England had subsequently scored during the game. These new rules mean Portugal would still have won based on their performance during the game and will have avoided the need to take penalties."
