Football video replays: Is the use of technology a good thing for the future of the game?
Our chief sports writer Dave Kidd and deputy head of sport Martin Lipton look at both sides of the debate
VIDEO technology was used in competitive football for the first time yesterday.
The historic moment came when a Club World Cup semi-final was pulled back to give a penalty — after the referee missed an off-the-ball foul.
Japan’s Kashima Antlers saw off Colombians Atletico Nacional 3-0 in Osaka and the opening goal could shape the game’s future.
Although it took nearly THREE MINUTES to award the spot-kick.
Is the use of technology a good thing for the future of football?
Here, two of SunSport looks at the two sides to the debate.
MARTIN LIPTON, DEPUTY HEAD OF SPORT, says... YES to technology
FOOTBALL has always been about mistakes and controversy. Of course it has.
But when clear, unquestioned and critical refereeing errors can be put right on the spot, why should anybody be a victim of injustice any longer?
Fifa are not exactly a beacon of light and goodness — yet by pushing for full video rulings on “game-changing” decisions, the world governing body has got this one right.
Yes, there could be a danger of refs feeling undermined. Nobody likes being shown up.
Yet surely officials would be better corrected, allowing them to admit their mistakes and rectify them, than be pursued for their incorrect calls for days, weeks and months ahead.
In the age of the tablet and smartphone, it makes no sense that 50,000-plus people inside a football ground can know instantly a blunder has been made but the referee is unable to fix it.
And with the game being so fast nowadays, players increasing clever at deception and manipulation, it defies logic to expect the officials to get every decision spot-on as well.
The system may need to be refined — and the last thing that the game needs is the sort of elongated, endless waits for a final call, as we have seen in rugby union in particular since the introduction of video referees.
Even that, though, is infinitely preferable to teams being denied points, wins and even titles by shocking mistakes or cheating.
When was the last time you read about “a controversial goal-line decision”?
The game before goal-line technology was introduced.
Once the genie is let out of the bottle, nobody will want it put back in.
HOW IT WORKS (in Fifa’s words)
1 INCIDENT OCCURS: The referees inform the VARs or the VARs recommend to the referee that a decision/incident should be reviewed.
2 REVIEW AND ADVICE BY VARS: VARs review footage and advise the ref via headset.
3 DECISION OR ACTION: The ref reviews the video footage on the side of the field before taking the appropriate action or accepts VARs info and makes decision.
DAVID KIDD, CHIEF SPORTS WRITER, says... YES to technology
WELCOME to the brave new world.
Welcome to football matches which will last for 2½ hours.
Welcome to endless TV video replays which will, more often than not, prove nothing. And which will sometimes even cause correct decisions to be overturned.
Welcome to the end of football as we know it — the end of a free-flowing, fast-paced sport which has become the most phenomenally popular game the world has ever known without any misguided need to strive for perfect justice.
A game in which the referee’s decision is final. And the referee’s a w****r. Then we all retire to the bar and discuss it.
Those who claim rugby’s use of the TV Match Official or cricket’s Decision Review System represent some sort of panacea for football to follow obviously have not watched a lot of those sports recently.
The first half of England’s World Cup opener with Fiji last year went on for an hour with officials poring over every vaguely contentious incident.
Cricket has suffered, too. The DRS ‘challenge’ system has altered the very nature of the sport with matches now often decided by which captain is the better umpire rather than which side is better at cricket.
And if you do not believe correct decisions are overturned by technology then you have not watched catches being referred to TV umpires because of suspicions they might not have been taken cleanly. Cricket is a stop-start game, as is rugby to a lesser extent.
Football never has been — but it will be defaced before long.
The use of technology tends to be a drip-drip which becomes a torrent.
Now it has been officially trialled by Fifa, it will come, as inevitably as death and taxes. And just about as welcome.