da leao： The debate about the implementation of technology in football reached a zenith during the World Cup and its qualifying environs, with notable exhibits for the prosecution of traditional officiating including; Thierry Henry’s handball and Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’. Yet FIFA had already taken several retrograde steps away from the use of technology a year prior to the World Cup, with its decision to use extra officials during the 2009/10 Europa League. The acknowledgment, after these now notorious World Cup moments, that something had to be done, was met with the action that there would be ‘discussions’ about technology at the next FIFA conference, and that the extra officials would now be used in the Champions League, for the 2010/11 campaign, surely an enormous acknowledgment of the successful debut of such officials.
da cassino online： But hold on a second, because this does not correlate. First, the saturating of the pitch with officials is unquestionably a move against technology, and second, define ‘successful’. I’ll start with the first point. It is true that both the use of technology and the implementation of extra officials are working toward the same goal; the desire to eliminate incorrect decisions. However, this is where the similarities cease. The whole reason for the call for technology is to eradicate, or at least minimise, human error, but through placing more officials on the pitch you are attempting to do this through more human error. Yes, the more ‘official’ eyes on the game, the higher the probability the correct decision will be made, but this can, as may well be deduced by the Spurs vs. Twente match, lead to a case of ‘too many cooks’. The extra officials merely seem to be giving lip-service to those who are campaigning for technology. When propositioned about the use of technology in football, those at FIFA earnestly point toward the extra officials, as if this is a step in the technological direction. It is not. It is a reinforcement of the notion that traditional officials are the best way to officiate the modern game.
Now I am not in the school of thought that modern referees are incompetent idiots and need more training. The reason there are more noticeable mistakes made by officials in the modern game is that they are precisely that, more noticeable. As an audience we are able to scrutinise every decision the referee makes through any number of angles and at speeds far slower than the referees are themselves, so, if we can scrutinise and criticise through technology, why can’t the referees use the same devices to maximise their performance? Humans make mistakes, and always have, and the most conspicuous change in the game of football is the way the viewer interacts with the game, therefore, referees haven’t changed, the audience has. This places the officials in the unfair and untenable position of having far less of a chance to get a decision right than a member of the audience thousands of miles away, and this cannot be the case.
Placing more officials on the pitch merely means there is a larger surface area of officialdom to apportion blame to. Take Spurs vs. Twente; the third penalty was awarded by the extra official behind the goal who had just about the worst view of the incident in the entire ground, yet awarded the penalty. The referee, unwilling to disagree with his colleague, agrees with him, turning what would have been a minor debate about the nuances of ‘ball-to-hand’ into a huge debate about ‘changing the match’. But a bigger question must be, ‘why was the official there in the first place?!’ These extra officials received a muted response, to be kind, during their inaugural 2009/10 Europa League campaign and were inconspicuous in their absence for much of the tournament, which, given the old adage of referees being better when you don’t realise they’re there, is a good thing, except, these officials are in a position where they are meant to be seen, dealing with the most contentious elements of a football game; goals, penalties and, on occasion, red cards.
So, if you’re looking for technology to improve the game you love so much… don’t hold your breath!
Written By James Atkinson