Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin 7:55 p.m., March 09, 2023

Since the appointment of Antony Gautier as technical director of refereeing, a wind of change seems to be blowing on Ligue 1 grounds. Guest of the "Décideurs du Sport", Éric Borghini, member of the Comex and in charge of refereeing at the French Football Federation (FFF), has revealed that it is in negotiations with Fifa to modernize the rules in France.

Football refereeing in France could soon take a new turn.

Guest of the

Décideurs du Sport

on the

Europe 1 Sport

program , Éric Borghini, member of the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) and in charge of arbitration, wishes to embody this renewal.

Freshly appointed head of the Technical Arbitration Department (DTA) in place of Pascal Garibian, Antony Gautier has submitted several proposals to the FFF to reform certain rules, the majority having obtained the support of Éric Borghini.

"30 measures have been considered by a working group that I chaired. They have all been validated by the Comex", declared the president of the Mediterranean League at the microphone of Jacques Vendroux.

Among them, and perhaps the most urgent and necessary in the eyes of Éric Borghini, the sound system for the referees.

"As of January 19, we wrote to Fifa to ask that France be a candidate for the sound system of matches. We want to be a pilot nation", he delivered exclusively in Europe 1

Sport

.

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More pedagogy

Currently, viewers do not have access to conversations between referees during league matches.

Only the Coupe de la Ligue, now over, had seen a first experiment of this kind.

The FFF has not yet had a response from Fifa but hopes to be heard very quickly since the DTA has asked that the referees be equipped with microphones for the next Coupe de France final (April 29, 2023).

The international body must continue experimenting with sound systems during the next Under-20 World Cup in Indonesia from May 20.

But another measure, which on this point does not fall under FIFA, is the pedagogy of the refereeing body.

The member of the Comex wishes to emphasize the relationship between players, coaches but also supporters.

He assures him, "the referees will be able to speak again" publicly after the matches, which was not the case under the Pascal Garibian era.

"We want the referees to express themselves. We are training them in communication, media training, that is to say in crisis communication. The referees must be able to explain a decision “, justified Éric Borghini.

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First results

And this new shift wanted by the Technical Department of Arbitration and the FFF is starting to bear fruit.

The emphasis placed on education benefits French referees recognized for their qualities.

"(François) Le Texier, (Clément) Turpin, (Stéphanie) Frappart are designated in the Champions League and in the Europa League", was satisfied with the president of the Mediterranean Football League.

At the amateur level too, the first results are starting to pay off.

"We have +10.19% of referees" in 2023 compared to 2022. "We went up to 22,658 referees" in France, quantified Éric Borghini.

A profession which is attracting again thanks to certain measures such as "the aggravation of the disciplinary scale in the event of attacks on referees".

The Comex member does not intend to stop there and promises to continue to modernize football refereeing in France.