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Monday Debate: Should Football Introduce Video Referees To The Game?

Monday Debate: Should Football Introduce Video Referees To The Game?

It's been a really bad period for officials, is it time to help them with video refs?

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Referees are having a bad time of things at the moment. It's difficult to go a weekend without the men in black being the centre of attention right now but do they need help from video refereeing or do we let them carry on the way things are?

This weekend John Moss was at the centre of all the attention with his officiating during Arsenal's game with Burnley. First he sent off Granit Xhaka, which seemed like the correct decision but was still full of controversy, then came Burnley's penalty in the 91st minute and finally, and most controversially, was Arsenal's penalty in the 97th minute. There were questions whether it was a foul and further indignation that Koscielny was offside anyway.

However Moss wasn't the only one. Andre Marriner was also being called out for his decision not to give Manchester City a penalty when Kyle Walker clearly shoved Raheem Sterling. To make matters worse Harry Kane was offside in the build up to Spurs' equaliser moments later.

Mike Dean was also back at it this weekend for giving a penalty for a handball outside of the box, that after he'd been demoted to the Championship for other poor decisions recently.

All in all it has not been a good time for officials with so many high profile mistakes, in this country and in others too. If referees can't be trusted to see moments like the push on Sterling then surely it's time we added some help.

In the World Cup in 2010 there was no technology whatsoever for referees. Then Frank Lampard had a goal not given against Germany and the whole world was up in arms at the lack of goal line technology.

Even Sepp Blatter was incensed enough to do something about it and FIFA went about checking on goal line technology, by the time the World Cup swung around again in Brazil four years later referees were wearing watches that let them know when a ball crossed the line.

However on the same day of England's 4-1 loss at the hands of Germany another bad decision was made that should have shown the way for more help for referees.

In the day's late kick off Mexico took on Argentina, at 0-0 Carlos Tevez scored a goal that was miles offside. With the Argentines celebrating and the Mexicans protesting to the assistant referee the big screen showed a replay of the incident almost instantly.

It left the Mexico players further incensed and it would have embarrassed FIFA too. Not only had one of their matches been ruined by such a blatantly obvious incorrect decision but the timing of the replay showed that there was no need for huge breaks in play for video refereeing.

We asked our Twitter followers whether or not their should be video refs, and it's far from a simple question, but the slowing down of the game is something that many fans are wary of:

However, whilst some decisions can take time, most controversial moments are cleared up by our pundits and commentators after one quick replay. Howard Webb on Saturday had already told viewers that Danny Rose had brilliantly won a tackle in the box long before TV replays were shown as the match continued.

Big decisions also often come with a break in play anyway. When a player scores replays could be checked for offside whilst teams celebrate and if a flag goes up and the ref is unsure he could allow play to continue until a 'goal' allows him to check or play on until it no longer becomes neccessary to check.

Check out how video technology in football might work:


(Credit: FIFA)

Deciding whether a challenge resulted in a foul or a dive would again lead to a break in play and whilst that won't always be the case the ball is only in play in football for on average 65 minutes of a match meaning there is often a natural break to check previous decisions anyway.

Another favourite argument amongst voters for leaving the 'robots' out of the game was a lack of controversy:

Again though this seems like a weird argument. Somehow there's a belief that the sport we watch shouldn't be improved in order for us to have something to moan about.

Also video refereeing won't actually clear every decision up, video refs can't make final decisions and sometimes things just can't be cleared up. Xhaka's red card was the perfect example of this, even after replays some still think it shouldn't be a red card.

To take another sport as an example cricket decisions have been improved around 7% since the introduction of DRS. The system has helped umpires from missing howlers and whilst it's still not 100% and there is still controversy it's a system that has worked.

Here's how Hawk Eye works in tennis:


(Credit: YouTube)

In fact the challenge system that cricket, tennis and NFL all use is something that is somewhat popular with fans:

A review system is certainly something that could work however part of the problem here is football's inability to admit that sometimes the referee can be wrong.

A player can't be retrospectively punished if the referee says he saw the incident during the match, that is all based on the idea that if the ref saw what happened during the match then he punished a player correctly. That is arrogance of a level only Mike Dean could understand.

If cricket can admit that their umpires are just human and accept that they'll make mistakes then football must follow suit, the current system is utterly crazy.

Even rugby, where respect for officials is an important part of the sport, allows its officials to admit they were wrong. Senior official Wayne Barnes appeared on BBC Five Live last week to explain 'new' high tackle laws and explain some of the decisions recently made by himself and other refs.

Here football is again stuck behind other sports.

Of our near 8000 voters many believed that video refs should come in for all decisions and the majority though that we should have video refs to help for some decisions. Surprising was the amount of people happy with UEFA's fifth and sixth officials who stand behind the nets:





We surely can't go on like this, something has to be done. Sure nothing will be 100% correct but it could definitely reduce the amount of human error without taking all controversy out of the game.

The men in the middle will never be perfect but we should be helping them, not berating them!

Featured Image Credit: