Why football needs a Justice League: Furthering the case for use of technology

Need to weed out the inaccuracies:

UDRS in cricket

It is not that there have been no issues altogether with the use of technology. The Indian Cricket Team has frequently raised questions about the accuracy of the setup. There was uproar against the DRS (Decision Review System) during the Ashes as well. But there is a huge difference. As compared to decisions that have to be made in cricket, which are based on what the umpire sees, hears and at times on his predictions regarding the ball’s trajectory, in football, the decisions are largely based on the referee’s view of things. What follows is the argument that since the referee can only see a certain part of the game and that too from one angle, it is logical to assist him with the use of cameras. The error involved in such a system is much less than in other sports and is something that at least needs to be experimented with.

The issue of uniformity:

Blatter has expressed his desire before for the game to be uniform across the world. “The game must be played in the same way no matter where you are in the world. If you are coaching a group of teenagers in any small town around the world, they will be playing with the same rules as the professional players they see on TV.” It is hard to understand how use of technology changes the way the game is played fundamentally. The rules remain the same it is only that the enforcement of those rules will be much more precise and accurate. What is wrong with that? Are the ‘group of teenagers’ being taught to dive to get penalties or work on their play acting and hysterics to get someone sent off? Those are probably the only elements of their game that will suffer due to the use of technology.

Use of technology ensuring correct decisions on the field during the biggest events of football with millions watching will in fact, set an example for how the game should be played: With integrity and honesty. Besides, now that they have agreed to the use of goal line technology, the ‘supreme balance of uniformity’ between the game as it is played around the world has already been disturbed. So ideally, they should drop that uniformity talk altogether.

Cost of implementation:

On many occasions, the cost has been cited as one of the reasons for not using the technology. Platini said that the use of goal line technology for the 280 stadiums used in Europe’s top club competitions cost UEFA around 71 million dollars over five years. He felt the money could be better spent elsewhere, like on youth development and infrastructure. Probably Platini and UEFA are in the best position to understand how the money should be utilized. But moving to camera driven assistance wouldn’t exactly require a lot more investment, especially for the top leagues.

As things stand, neither goal-line technology nor the five referee system is a compulsion on a league. Both are options that can be chosen and paid for by a specific league or competition organizers. The biggest events in football are also the biggest events in the world. The billions across the world at least deserve to watch a fair game. If the issue is put higher on the priority index, then surely the money won’t be an issue for the most popular sport on the planet.

While bringing in technology will have to be a gradual process, the bigger leagues and governing bodies must look at this matter with urgency. It is extremely important to understand that at the highest level, the margin for error is very small for the referees and the impending impact on the people and events associated with the game is extremely large.

In their book, Soccernomics, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski write about the effect the game has on people world over. They look into statistical correlations between football and suicides in a country, the effect the game has on the happiness index of a nation and many other case studies that reveal how passionate people are about the game and how intertwined their life has become with this global sport, they so love. We also know that revenue wise, the impact of relegations and promotions on football clubs and the people associated with them is huge. The loss or gain of television and commercial revenue becomes a major factor in shaping a club’s future. Incorrect refereeing decisions influence the results that further go on and influence innumerable other associated aspects of the game.

Football has evolved beyond being just a sport and it will be extremely insincere on part of the regulatory bodies to keep on ignoring the basic fundamental flaw that plagues the game currently. If it stays this way, the fans might as well question their motives and intentions, for when the technology is there to be used, ignoring it makes no sense. Should we resign to the fact that the game we love so much has become more a farce rather than a platform for participating athletes to showcase their skills and talents that it was meant to be? Is it all just a big show? Twenty two players prance around the field for ninety minutes. A team loses, a team wins. The losing manager feels gutted and criticizes the referee for the call that turned the game around, the winning manager says he hasn’t seen it yet but it looked fair from where he was sitting. The pundits play the footage over and over and end up spending half their broadcast time discussing controversial decisions and convincing the viewer that they have witnessed a tragedy of epic proportions, only for it to happen all over again the following week.

The question that needs to be put across to the governing bodies is ‘What will it take?’ What will it take for them to notice the shortcomings in the current match officiating setup? Are the weekly signs not ominous enough? Will they only be willing to try something once a decision goes against Brazil in the final of upcoming World Cup? Perhaps a wrongly adjudged penalty awarded to Argentina in 90^th minute which Leo Messi will convert with aplomb, leaving millions of Brazilians who worship the game utterly displeased and triggering riots and civil unrest in a country already struggling with corruption, poor public services and rising living costs. Will that do? In the near future, FIFA and IFAB will have some decisions to make with respect to use of technology in football. We can only hope that they respect the voice of the fans enough to make the right ones.