Offside goal for Chelsea raises the clamour for the use of technology

Now I’m not saying it was the only contentious decision or that it will decide the Premier League title on its own, but the officials got it very wrong when they allowed Didier Drogba’s strike at Old Trafford to stand and give Chelsea a 2-0 lead.

Deserved

Chelsea probably deserved to win the game but the rules are the rules and as it turned out, the game would have finished all square if that goal had been rightly disallowed. United would be a point ahead of Chelsea with five games left rather than Chelsea being two points above them.

So once again we are faced with the question of using technology to make the game fairer. There were millions of people watching the game on television around the world and each and every one of them thought that the goal was offside and then had it confirmed by an action replay within thirty seconds of the ball hitting the net.

Allowed

So millions of people knew that the goal had been scored from outside the laws of the game yet the referee was allowed to give the goal and come close to giving Chelsea the title. How can that be right?

There is so much at stake, not least financially, these days that football cannot and should not allow crucial wrong decisions to change the destination of titles. When it is so quick and so obvious to all that are watching, it is nothing short of ludicrous to allow it to happen.

Argument

People say that bad decisions even themselves out over a season but that is an argument that holds no water in these days of all top matches being televised and the technology to ensure that right decisions are made is so readily available.

Mr Blatter and Mr Platini continually come out against the use of video technology but their stance is becoming less and less tenable. We simply cannot have important games decided by bad decisions anymore. If FIFA and UEFA want to maintain their credibility then they have to be more open to what is available to make the game better.

Cheated

I am not a Manchester United or Chelsea fan yet I felt cheated when that goal was awarded. There are few rules in the game but if one of those few rules is broken in scoring a goal then it must not be allowed to count. I cannot find the words to describe how ridiculous it is that this has happened.

A league title or an FA Cup or a Champions League final or even a World Cup, could be decided by a goal that everyone apart from the match officials knows should not have been allowed. We cannot allow that to happen.