Would technology in football ruin a passionate sport? Should it be limited to goal line technology only?

Answer 1

For a start, the cost of implementing any technology into football would be huge. While the top tier of football may be able to afford it, and maybe even the next division down, how would the lower divisions foot the bill? Many smaller professional football clubs struggle to pay their bills as it is, never mind the non-league, semi-pro and even amateur teams.

"What about the smaller teams? I don't think we need them to introduce things like video replays", I imagine people saying. But why not? To my eye, the beauty of the beautiful game lies in the fact that it is the one of the few perfect competitive activities, the ideal level playing field. Anyone can play, and turn their individual traits into a strength on the pitch. You don't have to be tall like in basketball, you don't have to be big and strong like in rugby or especially fast like a sprinter. All these things can be helpful, but anyone can play at some level, and be part of a competitive team.

This feeling of everyone playing the same game, regardless of their own skill is the main factor in having so many amateur teams turning out every weekend. People feel as though they are playing the same game as the blokes they see on the TV.

If you begin to alter the intrinsic nature of the game itself, for example, letting a man in a booth decide whether there has been an infringement on the pitch, you will find the game begins to move out of reach of the parks footballer. Not to mention the decades of dodgy refereeing decisions that have made legends of players. As an englishman, I will never forget the part the Russian linesman played in the 1966 World Cup final, or the unpunished handball by Diego Maradona. But these things will even themselves out over a long enough time span.

I feel sorry for the players and managers who feel they have had their careers affected by bad refereeing, but if you count the bad and good decisions up, I doubt any one player, team or manager has suffered a significantly higher proportion of bad ones.

Instead of costly video setups, why not just have a couple more officials at each game? A second linesman on each touchline (one for each corner of the pitch effectiveley) would eliminate the blind spots that occur when players get in the way, and give an instant second opinion on whether the ball has crossed the line or not. This measure could be implemented at any level, as all you need to do is rope in an extra couple of mates, not have a six camera instant replay rig.

Answer 2

Even if it is limited to goal line incidents, there will still be pressures to expand and broaden the service to other questionable decisions, should they arise. However, I believe that technology in sport is critical in retaining and enhancing fair play and preventing bias, look at rugby for an example- the world cup final and that so called 'no try'. If this try was given on the basis of recollection alone, it would have changed the whole completion of the match and may even of had affected the team which won the thing. So what i'm saying is that yes, we should have this technology for all the questionable disputes because it only takes a fraction of a second to resolve and will prevent unnecessary gatherings around the referee whist ironically is the real time waster. Furthermore people are developing a device which senses whether the ball has crossed a line and relays this signal to the referee in the form of a beeping sound.

Answer 3

In addition to goal line technology, I think that using technology to check whether a foul was committed inside or outside the box and off-sides would be good. Going down the line of checking every single decision would ruin the sport, but some refereeing decisions have ruined matches too!

On another note - I am an Arsenal fan and just wanted to say that you are an excellent player and would love you back at Arsenal any time!

Answer 4

the main thing in football is money and when there is so much riding on certain games if not all games i think there should be some level of monitoring happening behind the scenes, the ref and the ref's assistants cannot possibly see everything and going by past results or outcomes of matches that have determined wheather a team stays up or takes the drop bad decisions do cost clubs alot of money and after all football is buisness. I think at every match two officials with video monitors should be present and in radio contact if a decision is debated by a team or player the decision will go down to the two officials resulting in a proper decision being given ,play can continue whilst the decision is being made and if the ref gets orders from the officals the relevent action is taken or goal awarded and normal play will commence from the point of the decision. we all know when we watch match of the day when there has been a wrong decision made , the right one could be made instantly if there is any doubt in the refs first decision.
in order to combat wrongful claims being made any player who protests the decision and if found to be guilty of it should be taken off the pitch for a given ammount of time.
in rugby teams or players dont usually protest the refs decision because they know that the video will tell the outcome . people will rant on about it will spoil the tempo or passion in the game but i think something should be done to stop bad decisions and cheating in the game , when either a bad call is made or someone blatantly cheats these two factors stop the tempo of the game . players will think twice in future and football will become a game with credability again.
obviously when you talk about teams in lower divisions the money and man power to overcome or implement the technology will not be availible but if it was used in bigger clubs until a solution is found players coming from smaller clubs will just have to adjust .

Answer 5

Technology could ruin football, but another thing that ruins it is riots over small decisions. If the ref cannot see if the ball has crossed the goal line or not then there is no point having an argument over it when a simple use of TV could solve it. A lot of important goals have been either disallowed or given, on the basis of a poor refereeing decision. When the referee looks back on it, he usually feels guilt. Why should he when this can be so easily avoided? If a fowl, goal or an offside is missed, then football is not being played properly, in my opinion.

Answer 6

Video technology should definately be introduced into football . It has proved a success in tennis rugby cricket etc.Football is the biggest sport in the world and needs the aid of the latest technology.Their was a game between Man Utd and Spurs a couple of years ago and the replay showed that the ball crossed the line by at least one metre but the referee and his assistants were not in a position to see it and a legitimate goal was not given.Let us start with goal line micro cameras and give it a chance......if it works well then we can think about extending it into other areas.

Answer 7

yes I do think so but also in really big decisions some thought must also be taken into acount also. Goal line decisions are also pretty suitable for a game that is growing to be very intense and aggresive at times for club and country pride.
Linesmens might be the other argument but what we have seen so far they are not that trustworty which is why we are having a great debate about the technology in football
Goal line technology should be allowed into the game while other fouls should only be seen to by the referee otherwise our once passionate football would be falling astray.I think that this will help in the games in many ways and our football players are good at handling heavy decisions against them so why not is all I ask?
Thank you Patrick. good question

Answer 8

Technology should definitely be introduced but in a game like football, it would need to be kept to a minimum. Stopping the game for every little decision would ruin the flow of the game.

Goal line technology should be top of the list. The game needs it, especially in those important games where the results have big consequences.

But other questions like "was it offside?" and "was it a penalty?" wouldnt really work if decided through technology. And plus, it makes the game more humane by having officials make those decisions.

Answer 9

Vivi i am very interested to know why any real fan would say goal line technology is a bad idea.

Goal line technology = tells you wether its a goal or not.

without such technology = wether the ref THINKS its a goal.

What here is the problem exactly? The situation we have at the moment is the problem. Okay i'm not a hardcore or even a a fan at all of football, but i can see it for what it really has become its not a beautifual game but a game riddled with money in which the richest team always wins, it has NOTHING to do with location and its communities or even the fans.

every other decent sport has technology why can't football?

I say the whole sport needs to be re-thought, to start with every team (eg Sheffeild wednesday) should have, lets say, 60% of its players from that city who have lived there for at least six years. Thus making things fairer across the board for all teams and bringing some meaning back into it all too.

Answer 10

The wonderful thing about football is the professional game is exactly the same as the game played at weekends by kids all over the country. Adding technology to the pro game distances it further from the game played by armatures...........even goal line technology. This debate has only really started since sky have been able to show every incident from 30 different angles. I like the fact that the game relies on humans to adjudicate and that humans make errors and miss things.......without controversy we'd have nothing to discuss the next day.

Don't make the game sterile and perfect, allow it to be slightly rough around the edges and sometimes controversial but always interesting.

Answer 11

I agree with goal line technology (A match I saw recently had cameras mounted above the goals to see clearly whether it was in or not.) So even if the referee just stopped the game to watch that replay would be a good decision.

But anything else no. Linesmen have made some great offside decisions in the past, that we can only just see if we stop the footage and draw a line across the pitch. But linesmen shouldn't decide penalties and stuff, they are just too far away to see.

Freekick and penalty decisions should rely just on the referee just like now.