If I wander into my local town centre later on today and drop a piece of litter it will be spotted by at least one of half-a-dozen CCTV cameras.
It would lead to a small fine and possibly a couple of lines in our weekly newspaper.
On Wednesday night millions of television viewers around the globe saw France knock Ireland out of the football World Cup. Everyone of those armchair onlookers would have seen that the crucial French goal should have been disallowed because of a blatant handball.
Consequently, the Emerald Isle is in a state of national mourning and cyberspace is awash with twitterers and bloggers demonising the French team and key perpetrator Thierry Henry.
The only people who didn't see the handling offence were the only ones who could actually rule it out - the referee and his assistant.
This is because the game's ruling body - FIFA - will not sanction the use of TV replays to help officials get crucial decisions right.
As a result Henry is being pilloried as a cheat despite a previously impressive and unblemished career and the Swedish referee for the game is derided as incompetent.
The real villians in all this are FIFA and the French football federation, who are both ignoring Irish pleas to replay the game.
By doing nothing about it, they are missing a golden opportunity to brighten the image of football in the eyes of the world. Many see the modern day footballer as vastly overpaid and lacking in sportsmanship in their quest to win at all costs.
The latest controversy comes at a time when the integrity of other sports have been damaged by blatant cheating - rugby players faking injury and Formula One racing drivers crashing their cars to gain tactical advantages, while athletes and cyclists continue to take illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Football has scored a monumental own goal and missed a PR trick by failing to agree to play this match again.
The least they should do is bring in video technology to help referees because it is clear that footballers, who are playing for such high stakes at the top level, cannot be trusted to do the right thing when a similarly controversial incident takes place in the future.
We live in a world where our every move is monitored by CCTV cameras and yet the football authorities decide not to use them in their multi-million pound sport.
Shame on them.
I absolutely can comprehend the turmoil raised after the “scandalous” decision. Not only because I feel sorry for the fans, also that Ireland now loses a high amount of money for the reason that they are out of the competition. I can also understand when people say, that it is ridiculous if there is still no use of technology in football as we live in the era of technology. In spite of all this arguments, I must admit that I still agree with the FIFA decision after I had the chance to talk to a friend of mine who has a really good knowledge of football. She explained to me, that FIFA has reason for not "moving forward" in technology. They claim in their philosophy that football needs to be equal on every level regardless if it is a knock out game in the world cup or a game in Victoria Park in Leicester. As long as the referee in the park cannot use technology - the referees in the football stadiums won’t use it as well. If this is the real reason I am fully convinced. It this is a PR strategy and a mare’s nest - I must admit that it is a good one…but shame on them.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the argument that technology has to be used at every level of sport. Rugby, cricket and tennis all use video technology at professional level to help the officials even though it could never be used on the local club pitches and courts.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much money in football that it seems ridiculous they are getting crucial decisions wrong because of human error. The stakes are too high not to use camera pictures to decide if a penalty should be awarded or a goal disallowed.