I told you so: Football needs technology

“I told you so”. This is what critics in favor of goal line technology will scream after the incident in the England-Ukraine Euro 2012 group D encounter. The Hungarian referee, yards away from the goal, had a split second to decide if John Terry had cleared the ball before it crossed the line. The wrong decision flattened Ukraine and they created very few chances thereafter in the match and bowed out of the competition after a strong start against Sweden.

Football has always been a simple game and has grown to be the most played and followed sport round the world for its simplicity and reach. No other sport can claim to have produced so many superstars with rags to riches stories. From the slums of Africa, from the beaches of Brazil, from the car parks of modest suburbs in continental Europe, football has always been that aspiration that Kids sought to get out of their not so comfortable lives. So when you talk of change, the connoisseurs of the game frown upon your suggestions and want the game to stay the way it is despite the odd occasion where an offside ruling or a goal line incident has cost teams. Can we continue to brush aside these odd incidents or has it become one too many?

England was on the receiving end of a wrong decision when Frank Lampard‘s goal was disallowed in 2010 world cup. It has been found that an additional referee to monitor goal line decisions has been found inefficient more than once now. After the recent incident, Uefa and the football federations would be under severe pressure to introduce the technology soon. The English FA has considered introducing technology as early as the 2013-14 season. There is talk of testing going on with different technologies, but no one knows how close (or far) we are from having a really foolproof system in place. Until then, to get the decisions right, the fourth or fifth official should be empowered to overrule any incorrect decision made by the referees on-field. Again, balance has to be struck so that there are few delays and the flow of the game is not affected. One would look at offside decisions and goal line incidents as two instances that need to be looked at urgently, but it may be extended to fouls committed and handball incidents at a later stage. Either way, introduction of technolgy, whether one likes it or not, is only imminent.

English fans would only say,”Things just got even”.