Fifa and Technology

So I’ve been watching the World Cup alot. Gotta love a second monitor, ESPN3, and the ability to have the volume on without wearing headphones…

It’s been great. I love soccer/football. Played it when I was younger, played it when I was older, coached a club soccer team during grad school…Of course that’s when I was a player/coach and i had my ‘last’ knee injury which really prevented me from playing ever again…. but still.

Anyway this World Cup has had a ton of controversy over calls. Some people are for the use of technology to solve some of the problems, such as video instant replay like in American Football or a chip in the ball to tell when it went over the line. FIFA, the world governing body of football is against it, and has been for years.

One thing they claim is that it’s technology that wouldn’t be available at all levels of the sport, so it shouldn’t be in unless it could be.

Because my daughter’s soccer team this fall (her first…she’s old enough this year) REALLY needs video instant replay. I’m sure.

Other people say it adds to the drama and water cooler talk. Seriously? There’s plenty of drama without making some out of having unfair calls change the course of a match.

As you can probably tell, i’m for the use of technology, at least at the highest level. I think if there is a tool available to you to use, that can improve something, it should be used. If you can use a backhoe, why would you use a shovel? If you can carry a cellphone and be contacted in the field while you’re working, why would you not have one, and rely on checking in every day by payphone (if you can find one these days). The argument against the use of technology for technologies sake just irritates me.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should use technology for everything. It’s gotta solve a problem. Technology for technologies sake is also an issue. It’s a balance with Luddites on one end, and the Borg on the other. It’s important to live life, to be human, and to enjoy the world as the people we are and not let technology dictate our lives…. but at the same time not reject technology for technologies sake, or any other BS reason.

If it solves a problem it should be used. If it creates new avenues to experieince life, it should be considered. If it’s just tech for tech sake…. It should be looked at warily.

I think in the case of the World Cup, goal line technology should be used. A chip in the ball, that works 100% of the time to determine if a ball is over the line…. It would remove the HUGE issue of goals going in that aren’t recognized. It doesn’t happen a ton, but when it happens at the World Cup it’s a big big problem. It wouldn’t affect or change the players, it would just help the Ref make a call.

Instant Replay… It starts affecting the game. How would it be handled? It would be for things like offsides. If Offsides is called it stops play, so you couldn’t award a free kick if it was a bad call. What if the offisdes is in the penalty box? I just think it would cause more problems and change than it’s worth, not to mention that it would stop the game for long stretches and it’s just not good for a game that so depends on the flow of the match. It should definitely not be like American Football when the red flag can get thrown at so many points to get a replay on so many things.

However it should maybe be more like Hockey. There should be a replay booth of officials watching on TV. When certain things happen, like say someone is obviously offisdes and scores a goal, the booth might see it before play resumes, contact the Ref and say “we’re overturning that”, and they restart from the center with no goal scored. Have it all up in the booth, and able to overturn the obviously bad calls that video replay can see. Why not?

Sorry. Rant off.