Time for technology

We all know that football is a funny old game but an incident at Vicarage Road, Watford yesterday afternoon turned the game into a total farce.

I know I am biased because I am a Watford fan, but the opening goal for Reading in what turned out to be a 2-2 draw was the most ridiculous goal I have ever seen.

Fourth official

If ever there was an argument for the fourth official to be able to watch a replay and then tell the main referee what had happened if he had got it wrong, this was the case that would prove the point.

We have the technology and it is time that the game of football entered the twenty-first century and started using it, now.

Survival or extinction

Football is a game but it is also a business. Like many other clubs, Watford are in a difficult financial position and the fact that this ridiculous decision cost us two points might mean the difference between promotion or not at the end of the season. That could mean the difference between survival and extinction.

I will try to explain what happened, although I still can’t believe it as I am writing this. Reading’s Stephen Hunt took a corner and Noel Hunt and Watford’s John Eustace jumped for a header at the near post. The ball came off Eustace and bounced over the line. This was at least three yards wide of the goal and was an obvious corner although Hunt managed to hook the ball back into play.

Linesman flagging

Andre Bikey headed again towards goal but Watford keeper Scott Loach made a comfortable save. The linesman was flagging and we all thought he was drawing the referees attention to the fact that the ball had gone out for a corner before Hunt pulled the back in.

When referee Stuart Attwell consulted with the linesman, he pointed to the centre spot and awarded Reading a goal. There were 14,761 fans in the ground, twenty-two players, two managers and four officials. Out of those 14,789 people the linesman was the only person who thought a goal had been scored. The referee took his word for it although he must have seen that the ball was three yards wide of the goal.

Mockery

It absolutely beggared belief and made a mockery out of the game of football. To those not involved the incident might have been funny, but as a Watford fan, I haven’t yet seen the funny side of it.

How can the goal possibly stand? How can the result possibly stand? How can we continue to ignore the fact that technology exists that would all but eliminate stupid situations such as this one?

Rugby, Cricket, Tennis and American Football are all big games and they have all embraced technology. The authorities in those games would regard it as non-sensical if they didn’t use it to enhance their sports.

Third rate officiating

In football we have to accept worse than third rate officiating with inexplicable decisions standing, just because we think using basic technology would somehow destroy the traditions of the game. Please tell me how the game would be made less wonderful by the fourth official watching the replay within ten seconds and telling Mr. Attwell that the ball had gone wide and not in?

Every week games in the top leagues around the world are decided by disputable refereeing decisions and this cannot be allowed to continue. Obviously, many decisions are not totally clarified by TV replays and the referee would still have hundreds of decisions to make. However, for something as fundamental to the game as scoring a goal it is criminal that in 2008 we are still getting decisions like the one that went against my team yesterday.

Sent to the stand

Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd was sent off to the stands for arguing about the decision just like David Moyes at Stoke last week when the referee gave a free-kick to Everton when every other person in the ground knew it was a penalty.

I totally support the respect campaign and managers should be big enough to accept when they get a raw deal from the officials, but there is so much at stake that it is unrealistic to expect them to accept miscarriages of justice like these ones.

Ranting!

In the Watford game, the fourth official could have awarded a corner within ten seconds and in the Stoke game, Everton would have had a penalty after a similarly short delay. It would not harm the game and it would stop supporters like me from ranting on in articles for Soccer News!!

I apologise for abusing my position and writing about my team, but you may have noticed, I’m a little cross!