INTERVIEW-Soccer-Video replays would kill the game, says Platini

By Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Using video replays during games would kill the flow of football matches and end traditional refereeing forever, UEFA president Michel Platini warned on Thursday.

However, Platini backed plans for extra goalmouth officials, an idea which the world ruling body FIFA is to experiment with at the Club World Cup in Japan in December.

The head of European soccer's governing body -- who championed the new initiative when chairing this week's meeting of FIFA's new Strategic Committee -- made it clear he opposed the use of video evidence during games.

"Video referees would destroy football," Platini told Reuters Television in an interview.

"If we had this, in 10 years' time, we would no longer have any referees, refereeing would be over forever and we would have to use a video," he said.

"Video is a big problem for me. You would have to stop the game every 10 seconds, for every decision that is questioned.

"Football is a human game and the mistakes are human. We need to help solve the mistakes, but we must not lose the human feeling of our sport," Platini added.

Though unknown in soccer, the use of video replays during matches has become well-established in rugby as a way of making key decisions.