Goal-line technology
Thursday, October 21, 2010
FIFA president Sepp Blatter probably isn't a baseball fan, but what transpired at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night should be a lesson for him, FIFA and anyone interested in goal-line technology.
If you aren’t following the post season, here’s a quick summary of what happened in the second inning of the American League Championship series. With New York already holding a 1-0 lead over the Texas Rangers on a controversial home run only moments prior, Yankees designated hitter Lance Berkman walloped a towering drive down the right field line that flirted with the foul pole.
Berkman circled the bases with an apparent homer, although Rangers manager Ron Washington asked the umpiring crew to look at a replay to determine whether the round-tripper was fair or foul. The umpires compiled, leaving the field for a couple of minutes.
It took a minimal amount of time, did not get into the flow of the game and most importantly, the umpires got it right. The run was taken off the scoreboard and Berkman ended up striking out. The Yankees might not have liked it, but the integrity of the game was upheld… on replay. The very thing that seems to keep FIFA up at night.
That FIFA has to hem and haw (remember when Blatter originally said he was against technology in South Africa in June?) about using something that should lessen headaches is, well, mind-boggling. Some of the old guard have claimed that checking up on the validity of a goal would disturb the flow of a match. After a goal is scored?
Come on. How many times do goal celebrations get in the way of the rhythm of a game. How about when players go up and protest calls and goal to game officials? Isn't that interrupting the flow? And how many times have we seen that happen in a game?
Taking a minute or two to make sure a goal is valid should be a given.
"I cannot believe that we are still not using goal-line technology," former English referee Dermot Gallagher told The Guardian. "As a boy one of my strongest memories was seeing a man walking on the moon, live on television. That was more than 40 years ago and yet we somehow cannot use technology to decide whether a ball has crossed the line."
England certainly would not have minded it in South Africa. In the knockout round, Frank Lampard's goal was not awarded even though the ball was over the goal line by at least a yard in England's 4-1 loss to Germany.
Let's face it, soccer is a low-scoring game. Every goal is precious. When teams have so much on the line for a world championship in which hundreds or millions or billions of people are watching, you better get it right.
This isn't 1930, 1982 or even 1998. This is 2010, the 21st century. Like it or not, the game has become too fast for human eyes to get every call correct. Now, this technology should not be used for "mundane plays" such as fouls, throw-ins, and yellow and red cards. Only goals.
If the referee can't determine if it is or isn't a goal in a reasonable amount of time, then the original call sounds. Sounds logical, doesn't it?
By pure coincidence, two stories surfaced on Wednesday about goal-line technology.
One came via Wales, where the International Football Association Board announced it had agreed to re-examine goal-line technology. According to a statement issued by the IFAB, the technology should apply only to the goal line and only whether a goal was scored or not.
"The system must be accurate," the statement read. "The indication of whether a goal has been scored must be immediate and automatically confirmed within one second; the indication of whether a goal has been scored will only be communicated to the match officials."
Companies have a deadline of next month to make a presentation to the board before a testing period will determine the accuracy of each system. The IFAB's annual meeting is on March 5th.
The other was reported in the Guardian, which stated that FIFA had invited 17 companies that specialize in goal-line technology to make product presentations to the board. It would cost in the neighborhood of $395,000 per stadium, which is peanuts in international soccer.
It can't come soon enough.
Michael Lewis is the editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached atSoccerWriter516@aol.com.
posted @ 10:59 AM,
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