Premier League Nonsense

I wonder if i was the only person who cringed when German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized after Frank Lampard’s goal had been chalked off during the England v Germany world cup tie. Why would she feel the need to apologise for what happens on a football field? Has she apologized to the Turks yet for refusing to support their bid for EU membership?

In the wake of that decision the media went into overdrive with a clarion call demanding on goal line technology so that refs won’t make such crucial errors in the future.

Of course the problem with goal line technology is that it only covers the goal line. What about the rest of the field? A perfect case in point came when Carlos Tevez scored from an offside position for Argentina. How would technology have cancelled that goal? Or when Diego Maradona scored for Argentina against England using his hand?

Football is not like tennis or cricket where simulation can tell us whether a serve was in or whether there was a justified shout for Leg Before Wicket. Controversy can happen anywhere on a fooball field and if we are to use technology then it needs to cover the pitch, the whole pitch and nothing but the pitch.

In fact it doesn’t even need to be technology. All football needs is to put someone in with the TV editors. Then, when something happens on the field the ref can ask for a second opinion and the official can check the incident from a number of angles before coming to a final decision.

What is interesting about the Lampard incident was the reaction in the press box. As the ball spun back into play most of the gathered journalists, from the vantage point high above the field, weren’t sure whether the ball had crossed the line or not.

It was only after TV replays that they knew what a gaff had been committed.

But the match officials don’t have that luxury. They are at ground level and they have nano seconds to respond. The rules are explicit. If the referee has doubts then play on. Obviously the ref had doubts so he did what he had been trained to do.

For the English of course the fact that a perfectly good goal had been disallowed was manna from heaven. It meant that they could overlook the performance of a team that rarely looked like scoring and blame an outsider for their misfortune, albeit temporarily.

I feel sorry for match officials these days. Yes, they deserve to be called every name under the sun for the 90 minutes they are on the field. Journeys home after the game without abusing the men with the whistle and flags seem somewhat empty. Like traffic wardens and lawyers they deserve everything they get.

But now, with football being minutely analysed 24/7 it seems just too convenient. Football has become a game of two halves and when you lose you blame the ref. and TV pundits, often ex players, just can’t wait to have a dig at the man in the middle. Surely, if the ex players cared so much they would be the one with the whistle? That won’t happen of course, much easier to sit in the studio and criticize away rather than getting wet and abused on a Saturday afternoon.

Match officials are only human, rather like players in fact. And rather like players they will make mistakes. Instead of just heaping opprobrium on them we should allow them the means to get assistance on the big decisions. And the best help would surely come from an extra pair of eyes watching on TV.

There is of course no guarantee a spare set of eyes would call the decision correctly. But then that’s football and what’s wrong with the human element anyway?

NOTE - this first appeared in the Jakarta Globe!

# posted by Me @ 5:52 PM