The Premier League Is Never Even.

After the incident, West Brom asked that video replays are used. For an incident which is adjudge by most to be harsh, but not totally clear cut like Rooney’s kick. It is unclear and clumsy challenges which lead me to think that video replays are never going to happen. In order to determine exactly when the attacking player starts going to ground, if it is or is not before any, even seemingly incidental contact, is going to require replays that slow the game down. You have to look at the attacking player, try to adjudge where he is going, does he have balance, if not was it foul play that caused that? Where is he going? Does he have control of the ball…the list goes on. With the delay it would cause, that is never going to be allowed.

West Brom will probably face disappointment in their appeals.

The other option would be to then allow the game to continue whilst the incident is reviewed. Then to bring the game and the time of the game back to when the penalty should have awarded. Both options will just result in controversy, and the slowing down of the game.

Replays are used well in rugby, cricket, American Football and hockey. But they are different sports. Some of which are slow (cricket, American Football) and used to breaks in the game (hockey). The use of technology to determine if the ball crosses the line in football is a good move. But there we have clear black and white the ball is or is not over the line. It’s not as though we could use a snick-o-meter to determine contact in the penalty area – it is just a quite ridiculous ask by West Brom. They may as well suggest that extra time is played with two footballs.

However had Gus Poyet or Malky Mackay come out and said that, given the clear cut nature of those two decisions, it could have been a good argument for the use of video replays in the game. And we would have been talking about Wayne Rooney acting like a petulant child and how that could damage Man Utd/England’s chances, rather than things that could have been.

West Brom, Cardiff, Sunderland and Liverpool all deserve to feel hard done by with the decisions, and stats show that these choices will go towards the big boys more often than not. Until West Brom, Cardiff Sunderland and Liverpool become a big clubs, it is just the way the cookie crumbles.

Now, have you forgotten about those Purple Penguins yet?