Monday, 28 June 2010

Goal-line technology NOT the answer...

Even the Prime Minister has got into this argument now: goal line advances needs to be brought in.  I'm sure everyone has seen the England goal which was disallowed, causing a massive shift in the game's momentum and, in my opinion, causing England's downfall in that match (the rest of the tournament has no excuse).

Lampard scores (apparently not)
It's happened before many a time, two of which I remember well: Crystal Palace last season and Spurs five years ago.  I can't find a clip but Palace had a goal disallowed when the ball bounced back out of the goal from the back of the net, causing a 0-1 loss to Bristol City in the Championship (see Neil Warnock's reaction here).  Tottenham Hotspur's Pedro Mendes saw Manchester United's Roy Carroll off his line and hit a lob which was fumbled into the net and scooped out.  No goal, 0-0 draw.

FIFA have ruled out technology to help with this travesty due to the stop start nature of the technology and the cost of spreading it worldwide (HawkEye, technology used in tennis, is only on the few biggest courts in the world due to this reason).  However, the new UEFA trials on extra officials on the six yard box at each end is cost effective, not time wasting and keeps in the human nature of refereeing.  

The fifth and sixth official will have excellent views.
DO IT NOW.  Maybe technology isn't the answer but this has worked in the Europa League this year and would have solved all of the above problems as well as other problems such as penalty box diving and handballs to cheat and knock out the Irish.  Maybe too little too late but don't leave it this late Blatter!

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