Flagging officials get appointment with the doctor

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Assistant referees were summoned to an emergency get-together on Sunday to be addressed by Dr Werner Helsen, a Belgian fitness expert used by UEFA to help match officials prepare for World Cups and European Championships.

Helsen has been recruited to analyse decision making in the English game and instruct officials on how they can deal with the game's most complex and confusing rule.

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Under pressure: Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce confronts linesman Mike Cairns at Chelsea

The move comes as referees also promise there will be no let-up in the spate of red cards handed out for dangerous challenges until clubs heed a warning that was routinely given to them last summer.

As for the scrutiny of offside decisions, senior refereeing figures are effectively admitting that linesmen are struggling to come to terms with the heightened demands of the law.

This was most blatantly demonstrated by Chelsea's 2-1 victory over Newcastle last Saturday week when Salomon Kalou scored the winner from a clearly offside position.

However, there is greater concern over the number of goals that have been prevented by faulty interpretations of whether players involved in moves have been 'active' or not.

Referees' manager Keith Hackett is understood to have catalogued at least 20 occasions in the Premier League this season when decisions were incorrect.

Kalou was involved as the scorer of a wrongly disallowed goal when Chelsea drew 0-0 with Blackburn in September.

The offending linesman, Peter Kirkup, became the first of several to be temporarily dropped from top division duties. Sportsmail columnist Graham Poll last night endorsed Helsen's standing, having worked with him at major tournaments.

Former Premier League referee Poll said: "His studies on fitness requirements have been adopted by FIFA and UEFA to become known as the Werner Helsen test. And he's been in charge of the training of match officials at all major championships since 2000.

"Werner convinces you that 95 per cent of errors are made because of poor positioning rather than poor judgment. You only need to be half a yard out to get a decision wrong. He puts together an appropriate fitness plan.

"In the case of his test, you have to run 150 metres in 30 seconds, then recover by doing 50 metres in the same time — and repeat the schedule 20 times. He also specialises in changes of direction."

The select group of assistants ordered to the referees' Staverton training base in Northamptonshire were given an introductory talk by Helsen as well as being reminded of their duties.

Hackett is said to feel that, in one respect, these are being carried out.

English linesmen are held in high esteem and a presentation commemorating 150 games in European competition was made to senior assistant Phil Sharp, who, along with Glenn Turner, is a World Cup official.

Darren Cann is another highly rated official, but Hackett believes their example is not being followed by the rank and file.

His bid to raise standards is an acknowledgment that some officials have yet to come to terms with the FIFA dogma that has put offside decisions — and therefore linesmen — at the sharp end of a quest for an ever more entertaining spectacle.

Whereas defenders were accustomed to being given the benefit of the doubt on tight calls, the balance has shifted in favour of attackers.

'Better a dodgy goal than a dodgy offside,' is being drummed into officials.

It means that, although Newcastle's beleagured boss Sam Allardyce was rightly aggrieved about the manner of his side's recent defeat at Stamford Bridge, there is even greater concern in the game's hierarchy when moves are curtailed and goals disallowed.

Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why goals like Kalou's slip through the net.

However, officials are adamant that there is no excuse for players not being on the same wavelength as referees over potentially dangerous tackles — after all, managers were given a presentation on the subject by Hackett last summer.

A well placed source said: "It was put on the agenda after the Professional Footballers' Association expressed concern. It's not a sudden directive; that's not done any more and there are no surprises.

"Making contact with the ball can't be used as a screen and tackles that endanger an opponent can be one-footed as well as two-footed."