Goal-line Technology: More good than harm

He’s not the only one who will walk away from opening day with a horrible taste. Another London team were cursing their luck following some very suspicious officiating: Arsenal slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home to Aston Villa, despite taking the lead through Olivier Giroud as goals from Christian Benteke (2) and Antonio Luna meant Arsene Wenger was left cursing his team’s luck after the final whistle blew at the Emirates Stadium.

Did Arsenal face the wrath of the referees?

He could certainly feel he’d been given the short end of the stick. Referee Anthony Taylor signalled for Villa’s first penalty playing advantage for the visitors after Andres Weimann had struck the side netting of Wojciech Szczesny’s goal and the second was awarded despite Laurent Koscielny getting the ball off Gabriel Agbonlahor.

“The linesman said to me that he did not give the penalty and he was at the level of the tackle. So why does the referee – who did not give the penalty straight away – suddenly give the penalty? That’s what is amazing to me,” said Wenger on Villa’s second penalty.

“I would understand if the linesman said it was a penalty but you have to live with that. Just because you get these decisions given against you it doesn’t mean you should go on to lose the game. We have to focus on ourselves now.

“I feel there are still a lot of positives. We had some lively moments and kept going until the end and that’s what we have to focus on and forget the referee,” he finished.

Taylor was subsequently suspended by the FA for his performance in that game.

From assistant referees behind goal mouths at Euro 2012 to an array of cameras policing them just a year later, what the arrival of goal-line technology means that at the highest level, nobody’s job is safe if not done properly, and poor officiating will tend to have a domino effect on this particular stage: it only takes one poorly-officiated match to usher in an era of a computer replacing a referee or a linesman whose job it is to signal whether a player was offside or whether a team’s claim for a penalty was indeed genuine.

To err is human, but those errors cannot deny a team what is rightfully theirs. Letting the little things go always comes back to haunt you and Bolton Wanderers know exactly how that feels. In the 1995-96 season, the Trotters were relegated on the last day of the season when a goal that the officials had spotted earlier that season would have been enough to keep them up.

The FA Cup is meant to be the stuff of romance and it certainly was for Chesterfield in 1987, when they went all the way to the semi-finals to face Middlesbrough at Wembley. Leading 2-1, the Spireites thought they had scored when Jonathan Howard’s close-range drive crashed off the crossbar and bounced into the net but referee David Elleray disallowed the goal and Boro fought back to draw 3-3. Chesterfield lost the replay 3-0 and were denied a place at in the final because of Elleray’s gaffe.

Goal line technology will ensure that such gaffes don’t happen in the future, and the press can finally stop speculation on the ‘what if’ moments that accompany such ghost goals. Until, of course, the tables are turned.

What if goal line technology denies England a place at the next World Cup or European Championships? What if Germany or the Netherlands (take Croatia, France, any of England’s rivals) score a goal that requires the use of the Goal Decision System that denies ‘our brave boys’ as the English press calls the Three Lions a place in Brazil or France?

Will the English press stand by goal-line technology then? Or will they once again decry Mister Blatter and his inner circle for allowing its institution? They can complain all they want to, because it will be a goal fairly given.

And as they probably know by know, Karma is a b*tch.