Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Getting Better Decisions During A Game - The Use of Technology In Football

Sourced from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/



Here is an interesting piece of information - the average duration of a Manager (coach) at a Premier League / Champions League Club in Europe is said to be between 9 - 14 months! A game lost due to a poor decision, for want of access to good information, can have massive consequences for Managers of top flight Football teams.

The future of Clubs, sponsors, players and certainly Managers (coaches) can turn on a decision in a game, a decision that is not advantaged by the luxury of endless replays that the football public enjoys after the game. By the time the dust has settled on the game lost to a bad decision, there is often little attention given to the fact that the referee's decision was proven to be wrong. It doesn't change the result of the game nor the fate of those adversely affected by the decision.




That said, these decisions are seldom the consequence of a Referee or Referee's Assistant carelessness. When they drop a clanger, it's because they just can't see (in real time, not slow time) all of the incident. Only people in good position around the ground get to see exactly what happened. Perhaps our referees need a bit of assitance? Two ways to do that - use technology (and here we are usually talking about cameras and immediate review of incidents by an official not on the ground), or, more referee's assistants on the ground at those points on the ground where the usual decison making disaster scenarios occur.

Here are three examples I saw last weekend:
  • GK caught the ball, fell backwards just enough to cross the goal line and take the ball, ever so quickly into and out of the goal area. Referee and assitants could not see the GK cross the line, so no goal. Only a coupl of players saw what really happened.
  • Attacking team player dribbles to the byline, while challenged the ball goes out, player continues and cuts the ball back to a team mate, who slams it into the net. Now a few players and spectators sw that one, but the Referee and assitants just were not in the sweet spot to see the ball go out.
  • Attacking player goes to the byline, bloaked by defender, so trys to knock the ball onto the defender to get a corner. He missed and the ball went out without touching the defender, though it did have on odd spin on it. Referee had some players between himself and the ball and concluded that it had hit a defender. Now I was at the behind the byline a short distance away and stopped to watch this action. It should have been a goal kick, but I could see why it was hard for the Ref, while the nearest Ref's assistant was back near halfway (blind side of the field). Bad luck I guess, But what followed was a corner kick that was headed into the net. The game turned on that one. Bad luck.

Alas, FIFA (Mr Blatter to be precise) is opposed to the use of technology in the big leagues and competitions. Neither Blatter or Platini (UEFA) will  allow the technologies  to be trialled. Bit of a shame really, for it would have stopped Herny's diabolical handball dead in it's tracks. The support for the introduction of technology among the PL Clubs in Europe is enormous, but they await Mr Blatter's pleasure.

We have a fair bit of experience with the use of technology in support of Referee's decision making in Australia - Rugby League, Rugby Union and Cricket. Its part of the these games at the top level. Sometimes it goes wrong even with the use of technology (cameras) and referral to an additional referee. Nothing is perfect, but its good to get a few more important decisions right.

I think you will find this discussion very interesting - it captures the mood and the massive risks that are inherit at the top end of game when some poor bugger with a whistle gets it wrong because he or she just did not see enough of the incident to make a better decision.

What do you think?

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