The great soccer technology conundrum
So the World Cup is almost over, in just over a week we will have no excuse for leaving work early or pitching up late and bleary eyed because we were at the game the previous night and only got home after midnight.
Before we get back to the mundane drudgery of ordinary life there is one burning football issue that I get to natter on about and that is the issue of technology in football.
As I write this, it looks like FIFA are starting to come around to the idea of using technology for goal-line decisions, a big change from their previous attitude of: “Over my dead body”.
How this actually happens is something that will be up for debate but let’s hope that their initial idea of putting extra officials behind the goal never comes to pass. Those poor bastards will be so bored that the one time in 100 matches that there is a close decision to be made the chap behind the goal will probably be fast asleep.
There is the argument, from his royal holiness Sepp Blatter, about preserving the flow of the game that I agree with, the last thing I want is for the game to be sullied by perpetual referrals. And I am not even a fan.
There are a number of ideas that would solve the goal line problem, easiest of which is putting a sensor into the ball and a few on the posts so that a system can tell when the ball crosses the line to within a millimetre. That however would cost lots of money to solve a problem that doesn’t happen very often.
We could also put sensors on the boots of every player and create an intelligent touchline, but this would be overkill in the extreme.
My theory is that we should use a bit of common sense and the proven system that works in many other sports.
That is the TV camera and a 4th official sitting in the stands. Not only could we use him to sort out controversial decisions but I think we could get rid of all this play acting and diving which is a greater travesty in the beautiful game.
Here’s how I think it would work. Every time there is a free kick awarded the 4th official taps a button that time stamps the infringement. If the player that was fouled had claimed the foul (by sticking up their hand or rolling around in pain) and they are found after the game, to have faked the injury or not been interfered with by the other player they will get a retrospective yellow card. Two yellows equals one game suspension, four equals two and so on. If you are a habitual diver then you could rack up quite a few yellows in one game and eventually no coach in his right mind is going to pick you because you will spend all your time suspended.
The problem will solve itself.
During the game, each team gets one appeal. If it is turned down then you lose it. If it is upheld then you get to keep it. That way England could have got their second goal before losing to Germany.
The point about technology in any sport is that it has to add to the game and not detract from it. In cricket and rugby technology has made the game better, not ruined it and there is no reason why it shouldn’t happen in football as well.
There are hi-tech approaches to solve the problem, but if nothing else, the coverage of the World Cup has shown that video is more than good enough for sorting out 99.9% of decisions that happen on the field.
And if we can use it to stop those cheating buggers from handballing into the net or feigning offense to get a free kick or penalty then that is a win for the sport as a whole.
Just for the record: I think that the result of the SA-Uruguay game would have been a very different game had Suarez been called offside before Khune (allegedly) brought him down. However, Mexico and England were going to lose no matter which way the judgement call had gone.
I just hope that this is the last of the bad decisions, unless it goes the way of Ghana, in which case I will look the other way.
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