Poor Officiating in 2010 World Cup Highlight Need for Instant Replay

A year after South Africa 2010, I believe—sadly—that some of the most memorable moments in the tournament concerned bad officiating. During the first round of matches, I thought the referees did very well but as the games progressed, there were some outrageous refereeing decisions that marred the beauty of the game.

Two such decisions that immediately come to mind are the third US goal against Slovenia and Frank Lampard’s terrific strike against the Germans, both of which were wrongly denied. I have never passionately supported the call for instant replays in football matches to aid officials but I am certainly a proponent now.

In the US-Slovenia match, with all the bodies in the box, it is a bit more understandable (not excusable) that the referee may have perceived an infringement that was not.

But in the case of Lampard’s strike, the ball was at least a whole foot (possibly more) over the goal line before the goalkeeper grabbed it and it was still missed by the officials. We were denied one of the goals of the tournament due to the incompetence of the officials.

In the end, England lost 4-1 and some would argue that the decision did not have much consequence on the match but that would be ignorance. In football, a goal changes everything and to come back from two goals down to 2-2 in the dying embers of the first half is like an extra shot of adrenaline.

That goal counts and the whole game changes.

Instead, the English were forced to fight from behind, leaving their defence at the mercy of the German counterattack. In the end, England suffered a loss that would be remembered for a long time to come.

No matter what Fabio Capello has achieved in his distinguished career as a player and then as a coach, he will always be remembered as the coach who led England to a 4-1 loss against their arch rivals. Bye bye knighthood.

England were disappointing in this tournament by all accounts and the US still managed to make it to the knockout stage despite that poor decision by the officials but the calls for technology in football are getting louder.

The question is: Will FIFA heed them?