My frustration at the lack of action on this particularly topic was renewed today upon reading Howard Webb say he understood that it must be “really difficult” to introduce, and that he understands the fears it could change the way the game is played. This is just a myth that Fifa/Uefa are peddling to avoid using technology in order to satisfy their stale old minds.
I’m not sure how Fifa have convinced people that the technology is really complex because it quite simply is not. It’s far simpler than the technology used in Cicket (where the technology has to take into account line and trajection to decide if the ball would hit a tiny target) or Tennis (where there are multiple play lines being monitored) or Rugby (where multiple camera angles are needed and an extra video official). In football people are simply asking “has the whole of the football crossed the goal line line?” – given that we have technology that can instantly decide if a car is travelling above a certain speed and snap photos instantly, I’m pretty sure we have the technology to instantly tell if a ball passes a line. I’m also confident it could be done without any video official needed, the technology is there to tell a camera to click, it could be used to emit an alert to the referee when the ball crosses the line, every time, for every goal. It isn’t rocket science, despite what they are trying to have people believe. If you want to go the video route, though, given that you can buy spy cameras for £40 now, it wouldn’t cost the earth to fit cross bars with a few mini cameras – especially when compared to how much money the game makes.
Finally, and this is a question I don’t know the answer to, can the FA not lead the way on this? Is there anything stopping us from using this technology in our domestic game and simply turning it off on European nights and Intl’s? Perhaps there is a law against it, I don’t know – but if there isn’t a Fifa ruling stopping us, I’d like to see the FA & Premier League step up and start making things happen.
