Indonesian League 1 Uses Additional Referee Assistants, His Job Is Only To Monitor The Penalty Box?

Indonesian League 1 matches now feature additional assistant referees. (Doc. Indonesian League official website)

JAKARTA - The All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) made a policy by increasing the number of assistant referees in the remaining 2021/2022 Indonesian League 1 matches. This policy has been implemented in several matches, including Persela Lamongan versus Persikabo at the Captain I Wayan Dipta Stadium, Gianyar, Bali, last Wednesday.

After the match, the General Chairperson of PSSI, Mochamad Iriawan, explained the duties of the additional assistant referee. Apparently, their job is only to see what happened in the penalty box.

"Just look in the area of box 16. The task of this additional assistant referee is to monitor whether there is a goal or not," said the man who is familiarly called Iwan Bule, as reported by Antara.

After that, he continued, the assistant referee will coordinate with the main referee. However, his job is not only that.

Additional assistant referees also have a duty to determine whether there is a violation in the penalty box, including handsball. He considered, there is a possibility of violations that have escaped the supervision of the main referee.

"Because if there is a violation from the front maybe the main referee doesn't see it, so that's the role of the additional assistant referee," he said.

Iwan Bule then revealed the reason why PSSI had just implemented a policy regarding additional assistant referees. There must be special training from FIFA and AFC.

In addition, it takes quite a long time for PSSI to get a vibrating device that is used by an additional assistant referee.