Time For FIFA To Throw In The Flag

Am I the only one that's tired of the technology debate that is still rumbling on in football? As those who have read some of my older pieces will know, I'm all for having Video technology and have been for a while, as long as it is used in the right way .

It's almost a month since that handball and still it's being brought up in debates for extra teams, its effect on seedings and as December rolls on it'll probably be used to argue whether Santa exisits or not.

The longer FIFA lives in denial the longer this debate will become more and more ludicrous. The effect video replays would have on the game would be immeasurable and the criteria for them wouldn't even have to be that complex.

Personally I would go along the NFL model of challenges purely for the reason that it would prevent every minor decision being micro-managed. The officials can still think freely for themselves and wouldn't constantly fall back on video evidence to cover the 0.0001% chance they got it wrong. That doesn't work well in cricket and it wouldn't in football. It's also important that the referee make the call to stand or overturn themselves. Only they know why they made the decision and getting the 4th official to interpret the decision they made and come up with a decision based on their own interpretation would only cause as much confusion as this sentence. 

Most coaches stand on the touchline as it is and all they would have to do is throw the flag and the 4th official can inform the referee to stop play. Challenges would have to be immediate though, a decision made 2 minutes before couldn't be reviewed just because it led to a corner, which then led to a goal. Challenges would also have to be limited as anything else would just lead to abuse and the loss of a substitution could also be used for a lost challenge if the authorities felt it necessary.

It should be established immediately that no system is perfect. Video technology will not make the game perfect overnight. In the NFL the rules for challenging are consistently being tweaked so that the right incidents can be reviewed and even then they not always are. The argument that it would get rid of the human element and there would be nothing to talk about is poor and nonsensical.

Even now Mike Pereira, the VP of officiating in the NFL, comes out on TV each week to explain why calls were made and whether they were right or wrong. It doesn't change a wrong call, but it helps viewers to understand why a certain call was made. Maybe we would all look at referees differently if we knew that they couldn't see Henry's hand or they thought initially that the player didn't get the ball.

That's why I can't understand why FIFA are still in denial, the bad publicity and awkward questions they've had to deal with over the last 3 weeks could have been avoided. Maybe they just like the publicity