Fifa announced plans on Tuesday to introduce the technology to the game’s flagship tournament and invited tenders from interested providers, and the Premier League later revealed that it was “close to entering a formal tendering process” as well.
Fifa hope to confirm which of four systems they have chosen by “early April” so the technology could be used at this summer’s Confederations Cup in Brazil. ...
See the whole story here, from The Telegraph.
Kicking Back Comments: As I have said before, I am not a fan of this at all. I think it disrupts the "free will" that is part of The Game itself. To begin to take these decisions out of the hand of referees is "the camel's nose under the tent" in my opinion.
Video review of Offside is next folks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have heard many people say, "... this is it ...", only GLT during active play.
Honestly I don't believe them at all. I do believe that over time this will be the beginning of the erosion of the referees authority inside the field during active play.
Others have opined this has taken place over a long period of time with the adjustments to the LOTG that have been made. I do agree with this line of thinking as well, yet nothing has been so aggressive a step as what we are seeing with GLT.
... and for what some may ask.
This will be for the highest level matches around the world, and that's about it. Don't expect to start seeing GLT at your local U-12 match.
Lets just hope that the technology works. FIFA request for "other tenders" was interesting to me in this regard. If it works, why change it?
Prepare for all heck to break loose when it is shown that GLT fails even once ...
After that, what happens?
Yep, it's up to the guy in the middle and his team anyway. They'll get blamed either way I'm sure.
Pete,
ReplyDeleteI am torn on this as well. To me it shows that the game does fully trust the team of referees it has already graded as being able to officiate at the highest levels. The other side of me says well its to make sure the right call is made. The line between goal/ no goal is quite clear, should leave no room for judgement and while its a part of the game I hate to see a team penalized because of a miss here on such a critical in-game item. So long as technology stays with ONLY the goal line issue I think I can cope over time.
Steve,
DeleteA good line of thought that in principle, I do agree with. Which is "get it right."
As an example, during my time in MLS, while we could NEVER OFFICIALLY use the jumbotron, or small monitor generally at the 4th official table ... when there was a doubt, we did. The league would never officially endorse it, and we would never speak of it, but we did for the sake of getting it right.
Now where I am having some heartburn is that I have no doubt FIFA will introduce other replays in the future, and the basis of the argument is "... well we are already doing that with GLT."
It's not a bad argument.
Like I said I think offside is next ... possibly even penalty/no penalty based on the spot of the foul.
I think what would make it almost more palatable to me is if FIFA did as the NHL does, and have someone in a booth, above the goal line to look and see. To do what is being proscribed seems devoid of the spirit that the referee is charged to protect.
I also wonder if it will be used for "no goal" situations, when the ball does not wholly cross the line, but the referee awards a goal. I don't know statistically, but wonder if this is a greater occurrence than the other scenario that has driven this frenzy.
I guess at the end of the day FIFA is working to take one of the emotionally charged moments in a match out of the hands of the referee, who is, by definition, required to rule on it.
When does GLT go "HAL 2000"? And will a referee be rewarded or hung out to dry for making the right decision in contrast with "the machine?"
It serves to make a simple decision, much more complicated.
Thanks for reading,
PK
Peter, AGREE----a very sad day!!
ReplyDelete