So it seems the use of technology in football has become part and parcel of everyday football now, but is it enough?
I’m going to use an example from a recent international tournament: it was England vs Ukraine and John Terry played the offside trap correctly, making it clear to see that the Ukrainian player, whose name has escaped me, was offside. Thinking about it, I’m surprised Terry managed to successfully perform the offside trap, considering his legs are made of timber. The Ukranian player managed to latch onto the through ball and shoot towards goal, before out of nowhere our glorious Mr Chelsea cleared the ball off the line.
Although it could be seen from the replays, the linesman missed the ball creeping over the goal-line. As stated earlier, though, the Ukraine forward was notably offside, and then it crept into my head that if a goal was given in the Premier League but their was an offside decision in the build-up, then that surely deems the technology for goal-line decisions useless? In my head, I would use the technology package as an entirety; have another official watching the game on a TV monitor and if a goal is scored the referee contacts the other official watching the game to confirm it. The TV official could then look for any offsides and fouls in the build up and that will eradicate all problems in the use of technology. FIFA state they want the game to be as quick and grassroots-esque as possible, but surely there is more at stake at club level football than a knockabout with your mates down a park? There’s a lot of money riding on professional football and I’m sure a betting man may be a tad annoyed if that Ukraine goal was scored against us in the Euros.
I just know it would be my luck that Arsenal would be subject of one of these decisions and we’d get done over in a pivotal game of the season or something.