Technology

I see that FIFA & UEFA are meeting this weekend to discuss the introduction of some measure of goal line technology into the game.
About time too, if it happens.
Here is an article I wrote in my fanzine [Satis?] in the summer of 1998.

Technology – Satis? Summer edition 1998

When Sky TV got their teeth into football, they made an early decision which was to change the way British TV treated the game for ever. Sky put in multiple camera angles, and added state of the art technology to assist the commentators and pundits in their analysis of the action.
The simple old action replay was just not enough; now we were to get five different views of each critical moment, computer tracking analysis, total overkill. And what happened?
Something any football fan could have told you - the deficiencies of our referees were exposed time after time, with sometimes crucial decisions shown to be totally wrong, and important games shown to be decided by the incompetence of the officials, instead of the skill of the players.
And, of course, the debate about the use of technology and the fourth official began to grow.
The initial response of the football insiders was predictable. “We should leave the game alone, the decisions even themselves out over the full season, referees do a great job in very difficult circumstances..blah blah blah” The usual litany on Match of the Day from the Hills and the Hansens.
Utter drivel.
Decisions cannot “even themselves out” over the season. Just imagine that in one game, the referee wrongly disallows a goal, but the team in question are leading 3-0 with only a few minutes to go. Tough deal, but so what? In another game, a Cup semi-final, the referee wrongly disallows a winning goal in the last few minutes, and the team in question lose the replay. No way can you compare these two decisions. In the latter case, the club could lose millions, the fans are heartbroken.
The FA must act now to introduce the use of technology and help make the game fairer. A fourth official, linked to the referee by radio, is seated with a bank of TV monitors and a technician, and can give an alternate opinion on crucial moments in the game.
When should the fourth official be used?
Satis? offers the following blueprint.
The fourth official can only be used in the following circumstances:
1 If there is a “tight” offside decision, the referee should wave “play on”. If the result is a goal, then the referee will call for a replay to check whether it was offside or not. If the result is a goal kick, corner, throw in etc, then the referee takes no further action. Play continues.
2 If there is a penalty appeal, but the officials are unsure or unsighted, then play continues until the ball goes dead. The referee calls for the fourth official to adjudicate on the penalty. If his decision is that it was a penalty, then play is taken back and the penalty kick awarded. If not, play continues.
3 If there is a claim that a goal has been scored, but the officials are unsure or unsighted, then play should continue until the ball goes dead, by which time the fourth official will have decided whether it was a goal or not. If no goal, then play just continues.
In each of these cases, only a major decision is affected - a goal or a penalty. And by the time the ball has gone dead, the fourth official may already have reached a decision, so there should not be much in the way of time delays. Moreover, the above situations don’t often happen during a match, so the total amount of time taken by the use of the technology would amount to no more than a few minutes per game.
If you take the time we spend in going to and from the match, plus the time in the stadium, and mayhap the odd glass with friends before and after, what difference would a few minutes make?
Not a lot.
After the games, the FA can look critically at specific incidents involving player discipline, and get the right answer every time. Suspensions can be retrospectively applied if necessary, to cut down the
cheats.
More importantly, football would get the result right more than it does now. Fans would not leave the stadium fuming about dreadful decisions which have slaughtered their teams’ season, and would be far more inclined to accept the result, in the knowledge that everything possible was done to help get the right result.

And no more Clive Thomas, David Elleray etc to play the film star at our expense.

Isn’t that what everyone wants?