This article isn’t so much about Aston Villa but about football in general. I might’ve mentioned once or twice that I’d like to see video technology implemented in football but today I’d like to focus a little more on video technology and what it could add to the sport. I felt as though Aston Villa were given two very poor decisions against Fulham. Firstly, Kacaniklic bumped into Bacuna and as a result was given a penalty. I will not argue that there wasn’t any contact between Bacuna and Kacaniklic, however from a specific camera angle it was clear that Kacaniklic had bumped into Bacuna. Had video technology been implemented, it would never have been given. In the second halve, Agbonlahor was actually fouled inside the box, yet no penalty. I don’t think we deserved all three points from the game, but I would’ve at the very least wanted to see a fair calls given.
In other games, we’ve seen how a home crowd can influence referee decisions, especially when playing at home to the big teams. How many times have we seen referee’s favouring Ferguson’s Man. Utd or the late Chelsea penalty against West Brom?
A referee was once interviewed and he claimed that we could see a referee commit suicide in the future because of the hatred one can receive if a referee makes a bad call. Being a referee must be a high stress job, I’m mad at referee’s all the time for making poor calls. But they are just human and can only call on what they see. They don’t have the same replays as we do. But I do reckon, referee’s would be more confident of making a decisions if they had a third-party god hovering above the shoulders in the form of technology. If referee’s have that re-assurance that decisions can be overlooked would probably help these men in the long-run.
Referee’s are important in sport, I don’t want them replaced my camera angles or robots. But in this day and age, I see nothing wrong with technology giving a helping hand to referee’s. So here’s my proposal. Managers from both teams are given three calls, these can only be utilised by the manager and/or captain. The only calls that can be ‘challenged’ could be penalty appeals (after the ball goes out of play), penalties, offside/onside goals and yellow and red cards. These decisions would be handled by a team of three officials that sit in a broadcast type room. However, the replay will also be shown to the whole stadium so controversies will become less likely. Should a manager/captain get it wrong, they lose the challenge, get it right, keep the challenge.
Obviously, Bladder and Platini will be talking about how this would slow down the game. I reckon the game has already been slowed down a lot over the years. Players take longer injury breaks then necessary and players time waste. Video reviews would take 20-30 seconds max.
We’ve already seen goal line technology implemented into football, because if the ball crosses the line it should count. But what about a goal that was called as offside, but it actually wasn’t? What about that? We’ve also been hearing a lot about divers, video technology would certainly bring an end to divers. Many fans believe that diving for a penalty is considered cheating in the sport. It can be tough to spot a phony or an actual trip in football. Heck, when I watch TV I can’t always spot actors unless I see it from a different angle.
Football has progressed and I’d like it to implement the same technology we see in tennis, cricket and rugby today. I want to see referee’s play with more freedom, they’ll be less scared of making a call and most importantly, fans at the end of the day would feel as though every game is justice.