Video Technology: A Case of When, Not If…
By: Wayne Farry | September 29th, 2008
After a weekend with some truly ridiculous decisions made by the ‘top’ referees, the question is being asked from all quarters; When is video technology going to be introduced to football?
Every so often an incident triggers debate regarding whether or not video technology should be brought in, but after this weekend in the EPL and last week’s truly shite decision in the Championship, these calls grow louder and stronger every day.
After Rob Styles’ penalty award to ManYoo on Saturday, and Steve Bennett’s penalty award to Wigan on Sunday, the case appears stronger than ever. People are calling for the referees to either be sacked, forced to apologise or both. In my view, an apology won’t help one bit. These idiots like Styles have continued to make mistakes like this on a fairly frequent basis (Liverpool vs Chelsea, anyone?) and an apology won’t fix that. Styles’ decision on Saturday was so bad that I honestly think that he was the only person watching the incident who thought it was a penalty, and that’s saying something. But even if Styles does get sacked, bad decisions will still be made, no-one can change that. But what the EPL fatcats can do is make sure that if a bad decision is made, than it can quickly be made right without any consequences on the match. The answer in my view is; video technology.
There’ll be old romantics who’ll think that football is modern enough and shouldn’t be changed, and I can see where they’re coming from. But when the prizes are so great and the margins between victory and defeat, relegations and titles and employment and unemployment are so fine, for them to be decided by one man’s mistake is appalling. A team can lose millions of pounds in potential income and revenue from one terrible decision. That’s not right. When you see the accuracy of decisions made in rugby union and league, tennis and cricket thanks to video refs, it seems an obvious decision to make.
So let us gather our flaming torches, our pitchforks and disgruntled farmer friends and march up to the EPL HQ to demand some change, well maybe not the farmers, they don’t like the city.
The one question remaining is in what situations should video tech be applied, that’s for you sexy folks to discuss and the EPL to decide. For me, any change from this idiocy will be welcomed.
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Category: Premier League
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Comments
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As long as the technology does not interfere with the flow of the game. Rugby, cricket, NFL all have natural game stoppages which allow the time for a video decision to be made. Things like offside decisions cannot be sent to a video ref because the game does not stop (unless you let the game go and if a goal results you review the pass in question). Penalty decisions are one thing that could be sent upstairs, but only if the ref has called it in the first place. That may lead refs to call them more often since there is a safety net, but that should be part of their performance reviews.
Posted from
United States
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Amen.
Obviously the videos should be used whenever the ref is uncertain – especially when about giving a penalty, or sending someone off, as these two decisions hurt the most if they were faulty.
Good post!
Posted from
Austria -
goals and penalties, thats it. not cards..
Posted from
United States -
It could work- for penalties and straight red cards only tho… oR we could just all pass the hat around and pay for the officials’ to receive vision and mental tests, the bunch of clueless, blind idiots.
Posted from
United States -
No way, never never never – Ulster says No!
Half the fun of football is abusing refs and moaning about their decisions the entire following week. We’re all talking about the Man U non-penalty this week, what would we be talking about without it?
anybody???Posted from
United Kingdom -
ps you’re clearly a Man U fan or you wouldn’t have brought it up… would you be talking about it if it was Hull v Stoke? F Man U, Celtic for Europe xxx
Posted from
United Kingdom -
NO to video! Bad calls are part of the game, it adds a human element to the game, and really how could I go through the rest of my life never bitching about a ref. I couldn’t.
Posted from
United States
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