Is football’s tryst with technology necessary?

THE CONTROVERSY OVER Frank Lampard's disallowed goal during the England-Germany game at the 2010 World Cup has resulted in FIFA adopting goal-line technology (GLT).

The Confederations Cup later this year and 2014 World Cup will be the first two events where 'referrals' can be seen on the football field.

Any move that promises to reduce on-field errors and incorrect goals should be welcomed, but was football begging for this tyrst with technology? Or is this a case of a simple beautiful game unnecessarily jumping on the bandwagon of change that already has sports like cricket, tennis, hockey and rugby.

In tennis, technological aids determine marginal line calls that in the past would trigger long bitter arguments between players and match officials. With every other ball kissing the line, it was getting impossible for the human eye to judge the ball correctly and the stoppages were far too frequent. As for football such calls at the goal line were very rare.

The other pressing point is that football is a free-flowing game which, theoretically, can be played for 45 minutes at a stretch. FIFA did away with a back-pass to goalkeeper rule to protect this nature of the game.

Contrarily, tennis and cricket are games of stops and starts. Even for the long-drawn cricket contests, technology gets the blame for disrupting the flow of the game. Isn't it annoying when a team, and the crowd, breaks into spontaneous celebration when a wicket falls only to be halted by a review taken by the batsman.

Despite sport undergoing a global technological revolution, football had shown that resisting change can also mean being broad-minded. But by needlessly adopting technology it joined the herd.

Mihir is a senior correspondent based in Mumbai

mihir.vasavda@expressindia.com

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