“Last night a video tape mailed to our head office playing a message from Osama bin Laden confirmed that he’s still alive and active...it included Osama in an AK-47 background claiming that England’s performance was frustrating and appalling last night ....although the tape seems fresh and recent...but British Intelligence has dismissed the claim, stating that the message could have been recorded anytime in last 44 years..!!”  

         This is one of the thousand bullets that was fired against England by the British media after being thrashed by Germany last Sunday, but it was Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal which dominated the news channels (instead of devastating German counter attack) renouncing the age old soccer Vs Technology battle which has become the central feature of pub discussions and television sensation.

In the later match it was Mexico who bore the brunt of referee. It was in the 26th minute when Argentina's Carlos Tevez headed in a pass from Lionel Messi for a 1-0 lead, even though Tevez had been lounging in an offside position for a couple of seconds. In this case, referee Roberto Rosetti of Italy correctly consulted the linesman - yet still got it wrong and let the score stand.

As we all know it’s not the first time when technology has started showing up its ubiquitous head in the soccer headlines. It reminds us when the same opponents who played a 1966 World Cup final that swung England's way in overtime after what has come to be called the "Wembley goal," and all these years later, remains the sport's most controversial tally. Working with the same tools their predecessors had at their disposal 44 years earlier, referee Jorge Larrionda and linesman Mauricio Espinosa were presented with an eerily similar decision late in. Only difference was, this time England ended up being the wrong side. Never to forget their coach’s “HAND OF GOD” (the same hand which was sucking heroine for last couple of years....but no offence Diego I still love you) which might have been even more controversial than the England's 1966 tally, except that it took place in a quarterfinal. So the question is “Is it the time to welcome technology into our Beautiful Game.”

          The frontrunners in this field are the video replaying technology, the Hawk eye and the Goal Line Technology (GLT). Video replaying as we all know puts an extra referee in front of the computer screen which has access to all the cameras including high definition zooming cams, high speed cams (not to mention the cams which focus on Spanish and Italian girls in the crowd) which can play the video much slower than real time etc. And he gives the ultimate decision when consulted by the ground referee.

         The Hawk eye is based on the principle of triangulation using the visual images and timing data provided by high-speed video cameras at different locations around the area of play. It calculates at predicts the trajectory of the ball so become much helpful when the ball can’t be seen by the cameras due the players crowding around it. The Hawk eye has been successfully included in Cricket as well as tennis and demanding its deserving spot in football.

        But the most hyped thing is GLT.  This is a system jointly proposed by Adidas and Cairos Technologies AG. The system consists of thin cables installed underneath the penalty area and behind the goal line. Electricity running in the cables generate magnetic fields which are picked up by sensors in the ball (which includes a chip inside the ball as shown during manufacturing) when in the goal area. The sensors in the ball measure the magnetic fields and transmits data about the ball's location to receivers placed off the pitch which the forward data to a central computer. The computer determines from the data when the ball has crossed the goal line and transmits a radio signal to the referee, who wears a special watch, when a goal has been scored.....all this... in microseconds.

(Source-wikipedia)

But to be honest I’m not in favour of all these computer things in the game. I do agree that all these thing would bring precision into the game but football may lose its charm. After the Sunday mess up Fifa president Sepp Blatter has previously steadfastly refused and argued that technology will remove the human element from the game. I have to agree with him on that one. The game is brilliant as it is, with the added anxiety, hope and anticipation of getting decisions for or against you being part and parcel of the game. Introducing technology will, to an extent, diminish this. This will also take away one of my favourite pastimes: moaning about how the referee cost us a game. The video replaying or the hawk eye are good but they aren’t real time or instantaneous this will make the flowing and spontaneous game of football disjoint not to mention the revenue option opening up by this.....football would become abused by advertisers. Replays don’t slow down the game by necessity, but the new revenue stream becomes a dangerous one. Imagine a fairness cream commercial in your Saturday night match.

         It’s always an argument that if in cricket or tennis or rugby...why not in football..??? Technology works in rugby and cricket because there is respect for authority. The word of the referees and umpires is not contested with disdain and aggression. Can you imagine how these football peasants would contest rulings and manipulate officials knowing that technology is there to (mis)used? These people can do everything on earth to get an opposing player sent off. Anybody who falls down for no positive reason or rolls around on the floor like he is on fire....screaming like being hit by a truck.

       Another thing that made Fifa official to reconsider about implementing all these stuffs was because the technology is expensive and therefore cannot be installed all over the world at all soccer matches -- amateur and professional. Europe, some parts of Asia and the Americas could have the infrastructure to host such technology, but what about the rest of the world, where the game is equally enjoyed?

       The debate is never ending and after the Lampard-Tevez incident technology is almost inevitable to budge into the beautiful game. The two unlucky referees are sent home former players and referees appear finally to have convinced Blatter to consider technology since the England game outrage. The Fifa boss has not only apologised to England and Mexico but has gone further to say the issue of technology will be discussed next month. But the final decision is expected only in March next year at a full council meeting scheduled in Wales. But it should be remembered that So long as humans make the first call or the last, no matter how many reviews are packed in between, mistakes are unavoidable. There are also a lot of decisions to be made; if it is used for goal-line decisions, someone else will ask: What about off sides? The tackles? Sendings-off? The only way to keep the fire in the game burning is to leave the element of error in all decisions or else we will end up with a dull and sterile game.

“Technology has made things more exact but, as so often in sport, less fun.”

 --Joseph Misika

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