For years now we have lamented football’s unwillingness to introduce goal-line technology, before the authorities finally obliged and gave in to the demands of both fans and players.
This has opened the door for the argument that we should take it even further, as we still see too many incorrect refereeing decisions every week in the Premier league.
In both rugby and basketball decisions are reviewed, but in cricket and American football teams are able to challenge the referee’s decisions if they believe them to be wrong.
I strongly believe that we should push for the introduction of a system like this to reduce the amount of incorrect calls made by the officials.
It would be difficult to attempt this in the lower leagues initially due to having fewer cameras at some grounds, but the Premier League could easily do so if they wanted.
Cricket uses the Decision Review System, but the governing body maintains that it is in place only to remove clear cut errors, with leg before wicket calls standing as not-out if the ball is deemed to only be clipping the side of the stump by Hawkeye.
Coaches in the NFL must throw a red challenge flag before the next play begins to be able to challenge an official’s ruling, and can only do so in certain circumstances.
A combination of the two could be the answer, as we do not want to see manager’s asking for a review of every debatable decision, like a throw in awarded to the opposition by the halfway line.
There must be a limit on the challenges, possibly one per half, as we only want to see key rulings appealed, with the team keeping their challenge if they are successful, but losing it if the decision stands.
I have no doubt that it would also help the referee’s if they could have some extra assistance with their job.
If a referee’s call is overturned by a challenge then it reduces the amount of criticism they would receive, not only from fans, but pundits on TV as well.
One of the arguments against the introduction of more technology into football would be that it would add too much time to how long it takes to complete a game.
But, in actual fact, if the challenges are limited we may only see a couple per half and even if four or five did occur, think of how quickly we are able to see the replays after a key incident in a game.
By putting a TV screen by the side of the pitch that only the referee can access, by the time he has walked over to the side of the pitch all of the replays would be available for him to analyse instantly.
It would take him no more than a minute at most to check his decision and the game could be re-started with a very short break.
If it is trialled it may be decided that the system does not work in football, but why does that mean we should not try?
