Will we ever see technology in football?
It seems to be an increasing occurrence in the modern game these days – Frank Lampard’s was it over, wasn’t it attempt on Saturday, which cost Tottenham Hotspur, was the focal point of debate after Chelsea went on to pinch all 3 points. I definitely won’t be the first to compose a piece on the issue of just why technology hasn’t been implemented into the beautiful game, but it is the only topic worth writing about at the moment after Andre Marriner, and more importantly his assistant Mike Cairns, cost Spurs any chance of making that indispensible 4th place which offers a chance of Champions League football.
I mean, I can understand what Sepp Blatter wants when he argues that football should be a sport “for human beings” and not incorporated with the latest advances in technology, which would ultimately enable the correct decisions to be made 100% of the time. It would be perfect if the human eye was trained to be alert at all times with the reflexes of Spiderman, however it’s not, and never will be Mr Blatter.
So, are we just going to carry on playing the way we are, with three men making season changing mistakes? Let’s say Cairns hadn’t guessed that the whole of the ball had crossed the line and Saloman Kalou was flagged offside to wipe off Chelsea’s clincher, had Tottenham managed to hold off Chelsea, they would have all but ended the Blues chances of retaining the title. As it goes however, they are right back in the race after Manchester United stumbled at the Emirates.
I think it’s a disgrace to be content with fans who agree it’s fair if wrong decisions are shared evenly over the course of the season. Come on now, it’s not as if referee’s and their assistants say to each other prior to a big match, “OK, so I let Javier Hernandez get away with a blatant dive last week, I think it’s time for Didier Drogba to get away with one too”. What’s worsened is the fact that we are able to bring in the technology in time for next season. Tennis and cricket introduced hawk-eye to avoid human error, and even rugby has the exact technology which our game is missing. We need to move away from the Victoria age before football is overtaken as the biggest sport in the planet.
And when I say technology, I don’t just mean goal-line technology. Kalou’s goal was a close call and anybody in the position of the linesman would have been forgiven for making the same mistake, but upon closer inspection the Ivory Coast international is clearly offside. It is possible for Blatter and his buddies up at FIFA to make football the perfect sport – we can get rid of time wasting and diving, and even make sure fouls are received with the correct punishment if we really wanted to, but that would cause the game to become too stop-start like American football.
Football is a fast paced game, which is one of the nuances that draw millions of people to it. It is up to the governing bodies to decide whether they want to compensate unnecessary errors for a slower but more consistent game. I personally think they should, and I’m sure all of the clubs that have been riddled by the lack of technology will agree with me. That’s all of the clubs aside from United and Chelsea then.
According to the BBC, Blatter has stated that goal-line technology will be utilised at the 2014 World Cup if a system is approved in time. What? We’re able to put a man on the moon, and you’re stressing over whether the technology will be ready in 3 years? Don’t be daft, the technology has been around for years now. That’s a lousy excuse for Blatter to hide the fact that he doesn’t want technology in football. But soon enough, whether he likes it or not, the technology will be a part of football. It’s at our disposal and will make the beautiful game, well, beautiful again.
