Beyond The Touchline: Video Technology – Part 1

We welcome back Nick Truss who takes on the challenge of our feature Beyond The Touchline. The subject of video technology is being looked at in this first of two parts. This first part is from a football fans view on how it could effect the game for the better. The second part will be the view from a US perspective who make use of it regularly ins ports. You can follow Nick on Twitter.

 

June the 27th 2010. England faced Germany in the last 16 of the World Cup at The Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

One moment would change the footballing world forever. It was the 38th minute of the game, England were trailing 2-1 when Frank Lampard managed to get a shot away from the edge of the box lobbing the keeper before crashing against the bar and bouncing in. What do you mean it didn’t go in? You’re joking right? REFEREE!!!!

In case you need reminding the ball definitely did cross the line, however the speed and the awkward bounce coupled with the keepers reaction lead to the referee refusing to reward England their equaliser. England went on to lose the game 4-1 leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of everyone involved with England thinking what could have been.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV4nc_sjW9Y

 

FIFA President Sepp Blatter offered a public apology to England for the error and vowed to re-open the debate on goal line technology with a view to introducing it at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

 

“It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology” (Sepp Blatter, 2010)

 

Fast Forward to April 2013. News broke that the Premier League would become the first league in the world to use goal line technology after all 20 clubs voted in favour of Hawk-Eye’s goal line technology after their success in both Cricket and Tennis.

All twenty Premier League stadiums would be fitted with the Hawk-Eye system for use at the start of the 2013/2014 campaign. However those teams in European competition would have to switch the camera’s off during these matches as UEFA President Michal Platini stuck to his anti-technology stance. Platini insists that goal line technology is too expensive for the Champions League and the money would be better spent on youth development.

He has a point to an extent, any money spent on youth development is beneficial. Instead of ‘expensive’ goal line technology UEFA will continue to use the trusty ‘fifth official’ who stand near each goal with a stick. Not only are these officials completely useless as I have never witnessed one make a game altering decision, but surely paying the air fares, match fees and expenses of two additional officials is more expensive in the long run than installing goal line technology?

FIFA kept to their promise and in October 2013 announced that German company GoalControl would be the official provider of goal line technology for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil following successful testing in the Confederations Cup in which it identified all 68 goals in the tournament correctly.

How it Works

For those of you who do not know how the system works Hawk-Eye install seven cameras for each goal usually in the roof of the stadium. The cameras can detect the ball even if only part of the ball is visible to at least two of the seven cameras. Once the ball has been detected as being over the line the referee receives an alert via his watch and the goal is awarded. Simple eh?

Pro’s

It works! What more can we ask for? Hawk-Eye boast that the system is millimetre accurate therefore no broadcasting replays can disprove the decision. The technology was called into action on the first day of the Premier League season not only once but twice. The first incident came in the opening day clash at the Emirates where a Fabian Delph strike rattled the post and rolled across the line, Hawk Eye confirmed that the ball did not cross the line and no goal was given.

The second incident happened a day later at the Bridge when Allan McGregor saved an Ivanovic header on the line the system again confirmed the ball had not crossed the line despite the crowded penalty area.

One of the major fears behind the introduction of technology is that it would disrupt the tempo of the game. This is simply not the case with goal line technology as the referee is alerted within seconds of the ball crossing the line so there is no need for the referee to stop play.

Con’s

Personally I cannot see a single fault with goal line technology in football, if it works and it helps to keep the game fair and reward teams with the goals they rightly deserve (or don’t deserve to concede) then it’s great. There will always be the question that the technology could fail, we all use technology on a regular basis and sometimes it does have off days. I’m sure Hawk-Eye have contingency plans in place but unfortunately it’s a question which will remain unanswered until it does go wrong.

If I had to pick one fault with the introduction of goal line technology it would have to be the cost of implementing the system for the amount of times it will be used. Each system will cost a team £250,000 to install. Premier League Chief executive Richard Scudamore claims that the technology could have made in impact on thirty one decisions in the 2012/2013 campaign. That may seem like a large number of incidents but in reality thirty-one incidents in 760 games and over 68,400 minutes of football is an extremely low usage rate of one incident every twenty-four games or every 2206 minutes. Is it really worth the investment?

The cost will barely put a dent in the finances of a Premier League and probably most Championship clubs. Manchester United pay Wayne Rooney more than that a week. The concern would lie when trying to implement the systems across all four of England’s football leagues for use in cup games. Hopefully the FA will help these clubs pay for the technology so every team can receive the benefits regardless of which tier of English football they lie in.

During a recent vote on goal line technology in Germany there was a equal split with only three of the eighteen teams in the Bundesliga voting in favour of the technology. In order for the bill to be passed, two thirds of the clubs had to be in favour of technology being introduced. It is yet to be discovered why these clubs rejected the plans but it will be an interesting addition to the debate as Germany becomes the first major European league to reject the technology.

More Technology?

Following the successful implementation of goal line technology in football is it time to consider introducing technology to assist in other areas of the game?

Video Referee

The video referee has become a successful part of several sports such as Cricket, Tennis, Rugby Union and Rugby League but would it work in football? Possibly.

The obvious advantages of introducing video referee’s is that it would help to rule out any controversial decisions from deciding games which could impact a team’s survival or title chances.

It could be the answer to the diving debate, a recent example coming in the Manchester United/Liverpool game where Sturridge took a little tumble to win a penalty and get Vidic sent off. Vidic was incensed by the decision and despite Gary Neville’s argument that it was a penalty because Vidic dived in there’s no escaping the fact it was a dive and the decision could have been reversed with the use of a video referee.

The same could have happened in Manchester United’s win over Crystal Palace earlier this season when Ashley Young won a controversial penalty.

A case of mistaken identity occurred in a crunch match at the top of the league between Chelsea and Arsenal when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain appeared to use his hand to push the ball round the post. At the time the referee assumed a clear goal had been obstructed and issued a red card, to the wrong player. More of an embarrassment than a criminal injustice, the main issue was that replays showed that the shot was off target therefore being a yellow card offence.

 

 

If the referee had the option to ask for assistance from a video referee he would have issued Chamberlain a yellow card save himself the embarrassment and maybe Arsenal would have only lost 4-0! Or even got a goal back!

 

As mentioned earlier the main fear of technology in football is the effect it may have on the speed of the game. There is a good chance that a video referee would slow play down but people would argue that it works perfectly well in Rugby League which is also a fast paced game. I’m split on the speed front here part of me think that having a video referee will obviously disrupt play as they referee would have to stop the game and wait for a decision to come from upstairs.

However in the modern game a contentious decision is always met with player tantrums and surrounding of officials which stops play anyway. If the referee used this time to go to the video referee I cannot see the game being affected at all.

The other question surrounding this is how it would be implemented. Could a team go to the video ref whenever they wished, or would there be a set amount of challenges a team could use as it is in cricket and tennis. I would personally go with the challenges option to avoid the game being stopped for large periods of time every 10 minutes somebody did not agree with a decision.

The challenges would work on the basis that if you successfully disproved a decision you got to keep your challenge but if you challenged a correct decision you would lose one of your challenges.

There is a concern that football would move further and further away from its roots the more technology is introduced into the game the counter argument being that it is now the 21st Century and with Jose Mourinho’s well publicised dislike to 19th Century football maybe it is time for football to move with the times.

What do you think about technology in football? Has goal line technology impressed you so far? And if you could implement another piece of technology to improve the game what would it be and why? Tweet your thoughts to me and @TheEaglesBeak.

 

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