John Terry who was struck by the ball and whose eyes were only 2 feet away says it never crossed the line - you can't get more conclusive than that. It never crossed the line, the ref was 15 yards away, his view was hindered, he took a guess and got it wrong. As far as I am aware Rugby only uses technology to decide whether a proper try has been scored after the ball has crossed the line. Whether it has or hasn't the ball is dead and there is a natural break so a short delay is possible. That does not always apply in football so the comparison is misleading. It is interesting to see that none of the pro-technology people have answered the question as to how you restart the game or, more importantly, how you write a rule to cover all situations. After all we are also looking at situations where, originally, the goal might not have been awarded and a goal might have been scored at the other end before the video ref has made his decision. Going back to yesterday - the goal is given and the decision is reversed. How do you restart the game? You can't give a corner or a goal kick because the ball has not crossed the line. You can't give free kick as no offence has been committed. You can't have a drop ball on the goal line as that would be ludicrous. You can't have a drop ball on the halfway line as that who be unfair to Chelsea as at the time of the refs error the ball was still in the Spurs penalty area and they were still attacking. When considering this case bear in mind that the wording of any rule has to cover all situations. We also have to bear in mind that there are only a few cases of this nature in a season unless of course you are suggesting wider powers for the video ref for such things as offsides and penalties. If you are then I cannot see how you can write a rule to cover all eventualities. Take a hypothetical example. Young dives, the ref gives a penalty, everybody stops, including Rooney who could put the ball in the net, and then the video ref says ' no penalty. If you say that Rooney should put the ball into the net then you are openly saying don't play to whistle and just keep playing on if the ref makes a decision in case he is overuled by the video ref. Who would have the final decision. As an example look at the Spurs goal. The ref gave the goal but in the same situation a couple of years ago another ref gave a penalty and a red card. What if the video ref thought that giving the penalty was the correct action. Could he have overuled the ref? If he could then who decides if it was a red card or not? Would we have the unseemly sight of the ref standing on the pitch arguing with the video ref? I am not against technology per se but think that you do have to seriously consider the implications and the rules that have to be written to cover all eventualities and also write those rules to be fair to both sides and the authority of the match officials. I personally think that technology could bring as many problems as it solves. The authorities messed about with the offside rule and now nobody understands it. The old interpretation might have been unfair in some situations but everybody understood it.
Good post, bar the lack of paragraphs!



What am I missing?
