FIFA president apologises to England and Mexico

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has apologised to England and Mexico after both sides were on the receiving end of refereeing mistakes on Sunday.

Blatter, 74, also said that the issue of goal-line technology would be put back on FIFA’s agenda following the World Cup.

“I apologised to England and Mexico,” Blatter said. “The English said ‘thank you’ and accepted that you can win [some] and you lose [some], and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it.”

“It is obvious that after the experience so far in this World Cup it would be a nonsense to not reopen the file of technology at the business meeting of the International FA Board in July.

“Personally I deplore it when you see evident referee mistakes but it’s not the end of a competition or the end of football, this can happen.

“We will naturally take on board the discussion on technology and have first opportunity in July at the business meeting.”

But the FIFA president emphasised that the governing body would only consider introducing goal-line technology, not video replays.

“The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goalline technology,” he added.

“Football is a game that never stops and the moment there was a discussion if the ball was in or out, or there was a goalscoring opportunity, do we give a possibility to a team to call for replays once or twice like in tennis?

“For situations like the Mexico game you don’t need technology.”