A new rule made official

praise

During this match Mr. Benkö and his Slovakian linesman Igor Sramka found lots of recognition by all Officials of football associations (and also of the media-accredited journalists) when implying a new official football rule. Three minutes before the end of the overtime, Mr. Sramka informed Mr. Benkö that there was a foul made in the penalty area of Portugal. Mr.Sramka said, Portuguese Abel Xavier had hand blocked a Sylvain Wiltord shot. Following that information, Mr.Benkö went to the penalty spot in order to decide a penalty. Zinedine Zidane then converted the penalty and made it into a golden goal victory for France. The Officials of UEFA were highly pleased because several months before, the International Board of the FIFA did order that linesmen should also help the referees in cases of infringements on the part of the players of the defending team in the penalty area. In all the time before linesmen were only constrained to inform the referee if forwards had committed any break of the rules. Although there was no special defination: the official rules used to be (the rules only said that the linesmen should help the referee, at last the referee was the only one who had to decide), it was a so-called "unwritten law" that linesmen shouldn't denounce a defender and deforce the referee to award a penalty. There were only a little number of exceptions of "unsporting conducts", kicking in the legs behind the back of the referee, etc.
Thanks to Heinrich Wurzer