Debate: Technology in football, for better or for worse?

Technology for the better?

(Written by friend of the site, Dave McGinley)

Watching a replay of Adam Johnson's and Danny Wellbeck's 'clever' simulations to win penalties against Fulham and Chelsea lately, left me pondering for the 238^th time this season; how the hell are referees supposed to do their job effectively anymore when players are now so good at cheating that it’s become a kind of fast twitch muscle reaction for some forwards? It must be time for action?

Surely what we need now is the introduction of video technology. FIFA is stuck in a time warp and are hated by the average fan as a result of this. What these fans need is a powerful champion. An institution to take on the Luddites and show the world that football can evolve. Step forward oh kings of 2D, 3D, HD and possibly several other Ds not yet invented, yep you guessed it I’m talking about Sky Sports.

Sky could simply use its vast resources to stage off season games using video technology with slight variations on the games laws that mean it would fall outside FIFA’s jurisdiction. Example I hear you cry.  Here goes. On August 1^st 2012 they reserve a Championship/League 1 ground. They issue an invite for a 10 a side game. 35 minutes a half. Pitch marked just below the minimum requirements. See where I am going with this? FIFA use their power to stop individual associations experimenting with the games laws in much in the way central planning committees strangled all creativity under Communism. What about players I hear you cry? Well Sky can easily gain access to a fine pool of ex-players playing in their Masters Series. They simply select the fastest and mostly recently retired to play and pay them an appearance fee. The teams would be arbitrarily red v blue. These guys are retired and not still registered as footballers. This should avoid any nasty consequences from the games powers. Now we can simply begin experimenting. Be it a contest system like the NFL, Hawkeye technology (cricket, tennis etc.), a 5^th official with a monitor and a feed to the ref to give recommendations (my own personal favourite) it would quickly become apparent what is working and what should be ditched. The old red button could even be used to poll viewer reactions to specific innovations. It would be done in a controlled environment and respectfully held in the off-season.

No doubt Mr Blatter would be loudly and publicly unimpressed and lambast the English for their rebellious lack of respect for the traditions of the game they invented. And in the end what better reason could there be for Sky to try it, it would be controversy couched in moral superiority and that should equal viewers. It could start a groundswell of support for the changes that clearly work and finally a proper debate with some real information and evidence on an issue that badly needs it.

The Response: Written by Game Ramble Weekly

I applaud your desire for campaigning for improvements to the game Dave, I do. However at risk of being labelled a "Luddite", I am a long way away from jumping on the pro-technology bandwagon and there are numerous reasons why. Let us begin with the most basic logistics. How would it all work?


The most common call for technology is in relation to establishing whether a ball has crossed the goal line and yet in some ways this is the most problematic. Think of a recent incident of whether a ball had crossed the line or not. Thinking about Frank Lampard in the World Cup? Probably. I'm sure we can all remember the incident but just in case, here's a clip to refresh your memory. Now here is the main issue for me, when does the referee ask for the game to be stopped and for the incident to be reviewed? As I am sure you noticed, Manuel Neuer immediately launches the ball down field to Miroslav Klose and within 10 seconds of Lampard's 'goal' Lukas Podolski is inches away from scoring again for Germany. If the referee orders the incident to be reviewed instantly and it emerges that the ball has not crossed the line, then Germany have been deprived of a fair opportunity to counter attack, and I think I speak for most football fans in saying that a lightening quick counter is one of the more aesthetically pleasing and exciting moments that can happen in a game.

Equally if you wait till the next time the ball goes out of play, again using the England/Germany incident as an example, you could have a situation where Lampard's shot crosses the line but they do not get a chance to review it until the ball next goes out of play, which could very well have been when Podolski rifles one in and then you face the farcical situation where Lampard's goal has been instantly wiped out by Germany scoring on a counter even though they should have in fact been restarting the game with a kick off. See the problem? I am sure people will read this and claim that I am simply using one situation to deal with many different hypothetical occurrences but these instances are only hypothetical until they occur in a match and then it is a whole new controversy. For FIFA to implement any sort of new rules every conceivable scenario should be covered.

The most ideal remedy to the goal line problem would be the implementation of an ice hockey system in which some sort of motion sensor is activated upon a puck/ball crossing a certain line. Although hopefully we can all agree that there is no need for a gaudy red siren to go off the moment a goal is scored! If such a system was implemented at reasonable cost and was able to brought into play across a fairly wide scale (say every team in their countries top division had to be able to provide said technology) than I am willing to concede on that point. However those advocating a system in which television "review" systems have to to be operated then I feel there are still many problems to be dealt with.

Dave mentions the use of a "5th" official with a monitor feeding the referee advice throughout the game, again a commendable idea but again there are many potential difficulties with this. For example, I am guessing that one of the situations that you would want this 5th official to come into play would be in deciding whether or not to give a penalty? Yet aside from this system being subject to the same problems as the Lampard/Germany incident there is also the the question of time. Although people argue that such is the length of time that players argue over the awarding of a penalty anyway this would not be an issue, it does slightly underplay the length of time it could take a video official to review such an incident. Although some penalty decisions are clear cut, many are not, for instance when running at top speed it genuinely does not take much to send someone as quick as Aaron Lennon tumbling. A mere clip of the ankle, that may appear innocuous to the standard armchair viewer, can easily be enough to send players to the ground. It could take a long time to assert conclusively whether a penalty should be given so those who worry about the slowing down of the game are right to be concerned.


Additionally take the incident Dave refers to with Adam Johnson and Danny Wellbeck, it is going to be incredibly difficult for a video referee to assert for sure whether a player has deliberately sought to make contact with a defenders leg rather than the other way around.

Having said this there does need to be some action taken to try and curb the desire of players to cheat their way to success. However at this stage, with all the potential problems of video technology in reference to penalties and other incidents which could be problematic and unclear, what I would propose is a major campaign, similar to "kick it out" or the recently unveiled "so what" initiative to counter homophobia, that targets simulation and other forms of dishonest play. If the FA and the Premier League were to make a number of star players the face of a campaign to stamp out diving it would at the very least make players concerned about their actions on the pitch. If players like Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard were major faces of a campaign such as this it would potentially have some impact upon their actions or a the very least if they did continue to con referees the criticism and accusations of hypocrisy would give them food for thought.


Ultimately I am not fundamentally opposed to the idea of using television replays/goal line technology in football but equally I do not want to see the footballing authorities rushed into an ill conceived plan without properly considering the consequences and potential problems such a dramatic change would cause.

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