FIFA president Sepp Blatter says the one-match bans handed to both Germany coach Joachim Loew and Austria's Josef Hickersberger by UEFA during a Euro 2008 group game were unjustified.
-- Plan B underway for 2010 World Cup
Loew and Hickersberger were both banned after being sent to the stands in the first-half of Germany's 1-0 win over Austria in Vienna on June 16 by referee Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez for arguing with fourth official Damir Skomina from Slovenia.
Loew was then allowed no contact with his team during the 3-2 quarter-final win over Portugal in Basel where he had to watch the game from the stands, while Hickersberger would have also served a ban had he stayed on as coach.
But Blatter says UEFA should have not banned the pair, saying coaches should be allowed to get on with their job and be left in peace by the fourth official during matches.
"They were wrongly sanctioned," Blatter told Austrian television channel ORF. "The fourth referee should not create problems and should let the trainers do their work."
Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter admits he has a Plan B to host the 2010 World Cup - but it will only be used if a disaster makes holding the tournament impossible there.
"I would be quite negligent as president if I did not have a Plan B tucked away at the back of a drawer," said Blatter. "But only a natural disaster would make it active," he added pushing aside doubts over security and possible delays over construction of the stadiums.
Safety is a major concern for the tournament in South Africa where there are dozens of murders every day. And a recent wave of violence against foreigners there has done nothing to ease fears.
FIFA will give 150,000 free World Cup tickets to South African football fans, with unemployment running at 40 percent and the average wage is 700 euros per month.
But next year's Confederations Cup, from June 14-28 2009, will be a big test for South Africa in the traditional warm-up before the World Cup is held there a year later. "If we had to activate the Plan B, we would do it after the Confederations Cup," said Blatter.
He added the cup will be used by FIFA to test the idea of using six officials at each the game, including a referee assigned to each penalty area to help control the game. "It would be interesting on a psychological level, because the players would know they are being observed in the penalty area," said Blatter. "We will test this idea next year." But Blatter batted off any suggestions of a video referee to give his verdict on key situations in a game, or the idea of having a micro-chip to confirm whether a goal had been scored, saying the ideas had been "suspended".
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