Ah technology, the never ending debate that goes through football...of course it doesn't have to anymore but that would involve FIFA updating anything...the ludicrous Chelsea 'goal' against Tottenham in the FA cup semi-final was just the latest example of the breathtaking stupidity of still fighting against using technology. On this particular goal by the way, I do have to comment on the poor refereeing by an official who has not exactly covered himself in glory this season. Often I defend refs in this situation because the job that they do is next to impossible and I don't blame them for getting decisions wrong, but on this occasion there was no need to award the goal. It was clearly guess work as no-one could possibly see it well enough and the Chelsea players didn't even appeal and let's face it if John Terry doesn't surround the ref you know something's fishy. In addition, there were people lying on the goaline and it hit them!
Anyway, that's kind of beside the point. The main crux of the technology argument for me is it doesn't even have to be that technical. The fourth official currently does little besides tick off managers for not being statues and holds up a board telling us how much stoppage time is to be added which whilst useful and important could quite easily be indicated by someone else. My argument is that the fourth official would be far more useful if he was sat in a box, watching the game on the TV with the ability to speak to the referee (they already have these devices).
Perhaps to explain my argument, it's actually best to argue against the usual defences of maintaining the status quo. 'It would slow the game down'. I'm sorry, it won't. Let's face it all that happens at the moment is the players surround the ref for a while and complain and by the time we've finished watching three replays they're still complaining. You can watch a replay that gives you the answer in about ten seconds flat so I believe that is a daft argument.
'It wouldn't be the same for people just playing in the park'. Erm...so what?! With respect to them, the top league followed by millions and the international tournaments are kind of a little more important sorry...'It would take out all the debate' is another one. Oh well wouldn't that be a shame if we all talked about football players and teams instead of bad refereeing decisions yes that would be such a bugger...
The only postscript to this I guess is that there does need to be a definite decision on which decisions could be affected by this. Well the amount of ludicrous red cards we've had, the number of daft penalties given when Ashley Young practices his vaulting, the number of phantom goals....tell you what how about the refs use common sense and any big decision he gets a little bit of help from someone watching a TV. One of the most farcical things I've ever seen was in the last World Cup when Harry Kewell was sent off for Australia in a daft decision and then watched the replay on the big screen with the ref, pointed out how wrong the decision was...but the ref still had to send him off. I rest my case.
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