Monday 21 February 2011

Should Goal-Line Technology be Introduced into Football?

Ever since the World Cup one of the big discussion points was about the introduction of goal-line technology. England fans walked away from the match against Germany feeling gutted but with the thought of "what if" in their minds after Frank Lampard's shot clearly went over the line but was not given. FIFA originally announced on the 6th March 2010 that it would not be pursuing goal-line technology any further after The International Football Association Board (IFAB) voted against any further experiments. However in October IFAB (during its annual business meeting) went back on their earlier decision and agreed to re-open the discussions concerning the matter.



So would it have a positive impact on the game?

If the technology was introduced it would prove decisive on whether the ball crossed the line or not, therefore supporting the referees by helping them make less mistakes.

Some of the reasons why FIFA are cautious about introducing goal-line technology are:

- It may ruin the rhythm of the game
I think this is the biggest issue that we may not be able to judge until we see it in action. We cannot simply introduce the same technology as sports like rugby, as the excitement we get from football is from it being a fast tempo sport, whereas rugby is very stop-start and played in stages. Therefore any technology that is introduced to the game would need to act instantaneously allowing the game to flow as it currently does.

- They like fans discussing controversial decisions
There are always going to be controversial decisions in football whether they are for a disallowed goal or a free kick that isn't given, but to have FIFA reject goal-line technology due to the fact they want to keep some bad decisions in the game seems a bit silly. This will keep the pressure on the referees all for the sake of some good headlines. Admittedly FIFA may be worried this could be the first step into introducing more technology into the game, which could lead to other controversial decisions being being removed, but I don't think it should be a reason behind not bringing goal-line technology into the game.

- The cost of the setting up and testing the technology is expensive
Surely with all the money available to FIFA if they believe this will benefit the game then it is worth spending the money to investigate!

- They want the game to be played in the same way whether this be kids in the park or professionals on the international stage
This is an interesting point, though there are already a number of differences between them. For example the quality of the pitch being played on, ball being used and the standard of refereeing. You are always going to be have better conditions when playing as a professional and as long as the nature of the game stays the same there is no reason why this should be a bad thing for the sport. Local people at the park manage to play rugby, tennis and cricket without having video technology so why should it be different for football.

Hopefully in the next couple of months we should start to see the technology being tested on the big stage. Will be interesting to see whether it will work or not and how often it needs to be used.

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