Video Referees
The number of football fans who would like to see video referees introduced to the game is growing at an exponential rate if comments following the recent match between France and the Republic of Ireland are to be taken as indicative. The match made headlines when France knocked the Republic of Ireland out of World Cup contention thanks to Thierry Henry inadvertently bringing his hands into play. The problem was not that a handball occurred (such things happen in football) but that it forced a national team out of the biggest football competition of all.
Video referees and umpires are used in many other sports to give the human referee or umpire an objective second-look at events so that an accurate decision can be made about the validity of a play. Had a video referee been in place during the match, the handball would have been impossible for the main referee to miss, and things might have turned out very different for the Republic of Ireland.
It isn’t only in the case of handballs that a video referee would come in useful. A video referee would also help human referees to spot deliberate dives, genuine fouls and aggressive behaviour on the pitch that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. That, according to football fans, would result in a cleaner, fairer game where the best team always wins.
FIFA have called a special meeting to discuss the France v Republic of Ireland game, but were very quick to rule out a replay. A replay, the argument went, would set a precedent (or open an unwieldy can of worms, if you prefer) that would rock the sport of football to its foundations.
If that really is the case then it doesn’t say much for the integrity of the sport, and it doesn’t make things fair for those who participate in football betting. When you place a bet on a match then you naturally accept the fact that there will be some element of luck involved in the game, but you don’t accept the fact that falling foul of the rules will be allowed to go unpunished.
When Diego Maradona’s handball gave Argentina victory over England in the quarter final of the World Cup in 1986, discussions about how to prevent similar things occurring again were plentiful. Unfortunately, 23 years have passed without any real measures being taken. Whilst other sports have embraced the new technology that makes video refereeing possible, football has stuck resolutely to its old approach, and the sport is suffering as a result.
The latest handball debacle gives FIFA yet another chance to make some long overdue changes, and we, like football fans globally, are hoping that video referees will at last be introduced to the game. Will that happen, or will the sport score another own-goal by continuing to resist such useful technology? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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