No Goal Line Technology In Europe just doesn’t add up
UEFA President Michel Platini has turned his nose up at the option of pursuing goal line technology in next season’s UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions. The International Football Association Board and the Games Lawmakers have given the green light for both methods of technology to be used – Hawk Eye and GoalRef, but Platini insists his competitions will not go down the technology route in the foreseeable future. We’ve long awaited technology in football to be available and with two options now accessible why would we not seize this opportunity to finally have fair play in football?
Technology unquestionably outweighs the human judgement and with football’s current financial climate there is too much to be lost and won in terms of allowing or disallowing controversial decisions. We’ve all witnessed them happen and as fans it is horrendous to observe for your team and as a player it must be torture to get a well deserved goal taken away from you. We all remember Frank Lampard’s astonishing disallowed goal against Germany in the 2010 World Cup. Yes, okay, we did lose 4-1 but if that clear goal was given, we would have gone into the break 2-2 potentially changing the momentum, especially after scoring two goals in two minutes. The only objective in football is to score goals. It’s as simple as that. And when they’re being disallowed for poor judgement in vital competitions, it’s time to change the dynamic of the game. There is so much to play for in competitions and especially in competitions like the UEFA Champions League and Europa League. The Champions League not only title’s you the best team in Europe, but allows your team access to millions in cash prizes throughout. There is too much to play for to not have or even want the best possible standards in the game. Competitions fundamentally desire precision, so why would Platini not require precision in his games?
Every goal counts as we saw the Premier League title was won by Man City last season through goal difference. The Premier League is getting tighter and tighter every season and every goal counts in title winning and avoiding relegation. While some disallowed goals can prove irrelevant to a match result, others can play a huge role in the race for a league title. AC Milan and Juventus were both scrapping it out for top of the league last season. When it came to oppose each other it saw a controversial result as the two dominant teams drew 1-1. A goal to the good and dominating play, three points looked in the bag for AC when Sulley Muntari nodded a close-range header over the goal line. Unfortunately, Buffon’s tentacles flung the ball back out into play and the ref was none the wiser. This arguably could have lost Milan the title. It is just very difficult to understand why Platini is still so against precision.
Technology has been introduced in many other sports already worldwide and has already proved to be very effective. Hawk-Eye, one of the options available for football, is already popular in other sports like tennis and cricket. Hawk-Eye’s system works by using six cameras, focusing on each goal, to track the ball on the pitch. If it crosses the goal-line an encrypted radio signal is sent to the referee’s wristwatch to indicate a goal has been scored. In line with Fifa’s requirements, the whole process takes less than a second to complete. Who can argue with that? Platini needs to understand that goal line technology is now becoming a necessity rather than an inconvenience. Bearing in mind this is the same man that warned players of bookings for racism protests during the European Championships earlier this year. This man is delusional when it comes to understanding the importance of football and the effects it has on society. There is too much to lose to poor human judgement, when are we going to take advantage of the options available to us to help progress the beautiful game?
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