Sunday 11 March 2012

Goal Line Technology Is Nonsense As Bolton And QPR Game Shows

So here we go again. The whole of football has its knickers in a twist because Clint Hill's header was a couple of feet over the line and a goal wasn't given. OK, the officials were wrong. Big deal. Tell me, how many "goals" were incorrectly struck off for offside yesterday, and how many goals were allowed when they should have been disallowed because of offside, or a foul or handball? Look at Cisse's joke of a goal. He was three yards offside and stationary when the pass was played! And how many penalties were given that shouldn't have been given yesterday, and how many penalties that should have been given were denied?

And this goes on. QPR fans are arguing that Bolton scored a goal following a free kick incorrectly awarded and Bolton fans can legitimately point out that Hill's ghost goal came from a ghost corner that should not have been awarded in the first place. How many goals come from incorrectly awarded corners, free kicks or throw ins? How far back in the action do we have to track? Every moment in every game has an impact on the rest of the game. All points in a game lead up to any individual point in a game. The toss of the coin, deciding who kicks off, sets a template from which the rest of the game unfolds.

Then there are the red cards - those that should have been shown and those that were shown that shouldn't have been. And the yellow cards, because a missed yellow could become a red later in the game, and an incorrectly awarded yellow makes a player unnecessarily cautious in the tackle for the rest of the game.

So why the fuss over Hill's goal? In what way was it worse than Cisse's incorrectly permitted goal? I genuinely do not understand. I didn't see that Hill's goal had crossed the line in real time, and nor did the BBC commentator who yelled "Hit the bar", but I did see that Cisse was very obviously offside, so offside that I was staggered he was allowed to go on and score, provoking suspicions of the officials deliberately evening things out by allowing a phantom goal to balance out a ghost goal.

The answer is, of course, very simple. Introduce goal line technology but also introduce a three appeals system as in cricket, giving the fourth official the opportunity to review key decisions in a game.  Each manager would have the right to appeal three decisions in a game, with a system of heavy fines for clubs introduced for flippant appeals should they be made.

The system would not be flawless. What about a missed penalty? Perhaps an appeal could be made as soon as the ball goes dead, with any game time between the incident and any subsequently awarded penalty added on as extra time. But what happens then if a goal is scored in the interim? What a nightmare! So perhaps a manager could indicate an appeal, so stopping the game. But what if a manager chose to do this with a fatuous appeal designed to stop the opposition from breaking and possibly scoring? So the referee would have to be allowed discretion to ignore the appeal, allowing the game to flow until an appropriate time to stop and review the decision? But what would then happen if a goal is scored from the break but the review shows that the penalty should have been awarded?

It's a swamp in truth. So I suspect appeals have to be restricted to incidents that stop the game. If a goal is awarded or disallowed the game has stopped - except in the case of ghost goals like Lampard's and Hill's! But the fourth or fifth official sat at a monitor can intervene then irrespective of an appeal. Similarly, the issuing of a red card can be appealed as can the failure to do so in the case of a professional foul or the second possible yellow.

If we are going down the road of goal line technology, it is logically consistent to follow cricket by allowing three appeals and of rugby by allowing the official to review any suspect score. Mind you, the number of goals scored from set pieces would be drastically reduced given all the professional blocking that takes place in the box! Suddenly 0-0 would become the favourite correct score prediction; and is that really what the fans want to see?

10 comments:

jimwhu said...

football can follow cricket as cricket did at first and concentrate on line decisions ie that goal line decision yesterday qpr scored a goal if they had have reviewed that a goal to qpr
fouls on the edge of the penalty area where again you have a line could be reviewed
corners also could be reviewed
the only problem you might have is the time or time out involved might get 15 mins of injury time if you went after offsides aswell so 3 reviews sounds good per side but i think you could only use technoligy for line decisions now as football is a faster game than cricket
human mistakes like offsides are part of the game for refs but the lines are marked clear enough so theres somewhere to start from and im westham and qpr were robbed yesterday by a cnut of a referee

Anonymous said...

Poor officials is sad, but the true concern is M Hughes inability to pick and buy rigt players. SWP, Kenny and Onuoha are sad to watch, the same goes för Barton, Ferdinand and some more guys. But Hughes doesn't care. That is a pity...

Deane said...

It's all tosh refereeing errors are part of the game Just like players they make mistakes It's one of the things that make football great
People still talk about '66 debating the 'goal'
The moneymen are hell bent on totally ruining all that is great about footy and there's very little they haven't already ****ed up

Anonymous said...

The fact that it wasnt given changed the game...That game just happened to be one of the biggest of the season and has probably sent us down. The game was CHANGED by completely incompetence from the officials. It may well be a 50 million pound error. How on earth can you just say "get over it" or words to that effect? I know for sure you wouldnt have said that if the same thing happened in the same situation for West Ham. Sorry mate, i sometimes enjoy your posts but this is plain ridiculous.
LoftusRoadLad

Hammersfan said...

Many of you seem to be missing the point. I'm calling for consistency. If we are going to review referee's decisions, why limit it to goal line technology. The Cisse goal balanced out the Hill "goal" yesterday, deliberately in my opinion. Under the appeal system, the Hill goal would have been allowed and the Cisse goal disallowed. Of course, this lends weight to the argument of thoose who call for "no change" because things even themselves out over a season: in this case they evened themselves out over a game!

Why did QPR lose yesterday, however? Because SWP missed a sitter and because QPR's centre backs were no where to be seen when both Bolton goals were scored. Hughes should stop complaining and sort out the frailties in his team rather than worrying about the frailties of the officials. When he moves out of the glass house he can start throwing stones!

Anonymous said...

What a load of b*llocks. This article is laughable. Fancy that, HF disagreeing with a genuine point just because it is in favour of QPR. You are so boringly predictable with this absolute rubbish. Just reads like an uneducated bitter boron has written this...oh wait, it was.

Anonymous said...

Do you really honestly believe that Cisse's offside goal was deliberately allowed to stand because of QPR's legitimate dis-allowed goal?! You're even more stupid than I thought, and you're clearly not the sharpest tool in the box at the best of times.

Hammersfan said...

Why was it allowed then? He was obviously offside. Please explain the amazing coincidence. It's not the first time that officials have "balanced up" wrong calls in a game. Remember when Yeovil allowed the opposition to score after they inadvertently scored from a restart following an injury? The referee and FA allowed it, and lauded the actions of the Yeovil players, but anybody betting on the game might reasonably have felt cheated. The Yeovil goal was legitimate, if unintended. The decision to allow the opposition to score, whilst noble, was technically a breach of League rules.

I don't blame Atkinson and his assistants: they cocked up and, like Yeovil, did their best to correct the mistake at the first opportunity. Otherwise, explain the incredible coincidence of allowing a blatantly offside equaliser after disallowing a perfectly good goal. I have the evidence, now you prove me wrong!

Anonymous said...

Blatant goal?! He was offside, sure, but it was marginal. Less than a yard. Rather than your wild conspiracy theories, could it not just have been, much like the first 'goal', missed by the match officials. Your life must be very boring that you feel you have crazy conspiracies. Then again we all know your life is dull as you're a WHU with a very strange desire to slate QPR week in week out. To humour you a little, what about the blatant hack on Onuoha for a penalty right at the death. How does this figure in your crazy world of cover-ups? Face it HF, it was just a very poor day at the office by the referee and his linesmen. Coincidences do happen, hence coincidences. HaHa! Your stupidity amuses me greatly HF.

Anonymous said...

officials missed a clear goal.also 3 bolton players standing in an offside position for their 1st goal.and a blatant penalty for qpr in last minute.a clear case of officials seeing what they want to see and nothing else.