New innovation set to take football by storm

Football authorities have been secretly testing 'ref-mobile' Segways - and they will be used in the Blue Square Premier next season.

Blackburn manager, Sam Allardyce, believes the motorised two-wheeler will keep referees up to speed with the game's fastest players.

Allardyce said: "Players are athletes and we can't expect refs to keep up with them for a full 90 minutes, so this gives them a real edge.



"We can no longer say the referee was nowhere near the incident because, with this, he will be."

Top referee Mark Halsey said: "Not only does the innovation help referees keep right up with play it will also mean older, more experienced refs will not be lost to the game. It's easy to move it round the pitch. This could be the biggest move forward in refereeing yet."

If the experiment works in non-league, the idea will be put forward to UEFA for it to be introduced all over Europe.

With news video.