When technology misses the goal line

Video tech?!

Soon and very soon, the soccer ball will be embedded with a chip that maps its trajectory across the goal line. FIFA is expected to sanction its use in March 2012. Never mind that disputes arising from these situations are remotely spaced apart, rare to be precise. But football's governing body, FIFA is determined to place a hawk eye on the goal line. To some, this unyielding ambition is a good example of using technology in a way that it misses the point. That is where I stand. The game's greatest threat is more out field, where the majority of the contest is played. It is the sophistry of negative football that is weakening the appeal of the beautiful game.

With the spread of live telecast of soccer games across borders, it is easy to measure the strength of opposing teams and follow key players astutely. Everyone of note is well known. What a team needs nowadays to win or avoid defeat is to ensure that a better opponent finds it impossible to impose their strength or talent and the tools to achieve this has been abundantly displayed in the last world cup and the Real Madrid/Barcelona Champions league games. Professional falls, feigning injuries and defying gravity with the slightest contact to get an opponent booked are lavishly shown on television replays. Players are booked or sent off for dangerous tackles when no contact was even made. But these game changing antics are largely missed by the men in black! Gradually and persistently the game is losing its core feature, the ability to exploit your strength for a decent stretch of time over 90 minutes of a football match.

Tactics, pragmatic approach and foul play are now miles ahead of technique and talent. Great games at the highest levels of professional football are far apart. When they do come, real entertainment is transient. They are mostly cagey, disrupted by fisticuffs and unnecessary delays. It is sad that FIFA is not exploiting available technology to clean the game and bring back beauty to the beautiful game. The undue emphasis on goal line technology misses the point or better still, creates an unwanted distraction. Video technology can provide officials with instant video replays which would easily tackle goal line dispute, difficult off-sides calls, as well as catching those con artist disguised as soccer stars. What do we really have to lose if the game is played fair?