Explain This, Blatter
Even He Neuer It Was In
As regular readers will know, I have been banging on about the introduction of video technology on this site for the last twelve months and there have been no shortage of examples during that time to make any normal person shake their head in disbelief that the most influential person in the game, Sepp Blatter, simply refuses point blank to even consider the suggestion.
Watching the England game yesterday was embarrassing and disappointing – we played badly, we were well beaten and Germany thoroughly deserve their place in the quarter-finals.
However, none of this should be allowed to detract from the fact that England were denied a clear goal which would have been picked up within half a second if Hawkeye technology was used and within ten seconds if simple video technology was used.
The debate as to whether this goal would have changed the dynamics of the game and the overall result is completely irrelevant to this argument but I’m sure we can all at least agree that scoring goals is the whole point of football and when mistakes are being made regarding this most basic, but most crucial, part of the game then the powers-that-be should be doing everything in their power to eliminate them.
Sepp Blatter has yet to comment on this latest farcical moment but he was in the crowd watching the match yesterday and he would have seen the replay on the big screen for himself. I would love to know what was going through his mind as he watched that.
Millions of people around the world had just seen a moment of sporting injustice within seconds of it happening and the fact that it was allowed to stand, despite all those people immediately knowing that it was wrong, just makes an embarrassment of the game and as this is the World Cup – the most glamorous and famous event in football – just makes it all the worse.
This embarrassment and injustice is not the fault of the referee and his assistant and I hope that he does not try to deflect it onto them. The cause of it all is down to one very powerful but very stupid man who can’t see the error of his antiquated ways even when they are shown to him on a fifty foot high screen.
I look forward to his response to this incident with great interest.
EVERYBODY SAW IT except the ref… Even the German coach said he saw it from where he was standing the first time!!! GRRR!!!!! At 2-2 it would have been very different… and with the goal disallowed, the players’ fighting spirit was squashed and the German made good counter attacks in the second half!
I don’t understand why can’t goal line technology be introduced in football!! It’s been so successful in Ice Hockey… Why can’t the hawkeye technology be used with so much money available in football? And why has FIFA decided NOT to continue with the experiment of 5 officials, just like in Europa League? Surely a referee near the goal would have clearly seen it!
Coincidently, the English FA had voted FOR the use of goal line technology in the IFAB meeting in March 2010, but FIFA voted against!
Yes. For such a common-sense suggestion, it just seems ridiculous to dismiss it entirely and it is not surprising that some conspiracy theorists believe that the only reason for not allowing it is for more sinister reasons.
On a side note. I reckon England played really badly. Please have a quota for english players that are being field each week less England’s national football has no hope at all. Not even half of the players field against Germany are in the EPL’s top four clubs. What’s going on?
Oh, there’s no argument about that Samson. We were terrible. Not just in the Germany game but the whole tournament (while it lasted).
That we were so completely defeated by Germany has only helped to divert attention away from this “goal” thing – we didn’t deserve to go through goal or no goal.
There were so many things wrong with England’s performance that it is difficult to know where to start – that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t even bother to write about it!
We can only hope that lessons get learned and we improve in the future because of them.
All this talk about FIFA going against goal line technology is making me think so much harder about whether the World Cup is a bookies game.
Sigh.. They sure made a lot of money this year from the group stages.. Too many upsets.
@Andrew – Exactly. When the integrity of the sport is under question, you would think the man in charge would do everything in his power to address it. Hawkeye technology and video replay technology is there right now. It just needs to be implemented.