Technology in football

Most people (and most recently Darren Fletcher) will tell you that technology should be brought in in professional football, but to what extent would you like to see it brought in? What options would the referee have? Would you welcome a review system, similar to what we see in Cricket?

In my mind, there are a two different categories.

Referee calls for the technology

Goal-line decisions
Assuming there is no automatic sensor on the way in (and it's going to be done with video technology), if the referee isn't sure if the ball has crossed the line he should immediately blow his whistle and ask the 4th official to check the video. If it has crossed the line, award a goal. If it hasn't crossed the line, award a goal kick to the defending team. The 4th official should also check that there has been no foul in the act of scoring.

Players call for the technology

Fouls in the act of scoring
If the ball is in the net, then the play stops. If the referee wants to award the goal, the defending team has the option of reviewing the decision, if they believe there was a foul in the act of scoring the goal. Either the ball went into the goal off a player's hand, a player illegally climbed over another to win the header etc. If the referee gives a foul in the act of scoring the goal, then the attacking team has the option of reviewing the decision. The 4th official then checks to see if there was a foul in the act of scoring and awards the goal/free-kick as appropriate. The referee can reject an appeal he deems frivolous (for example if the ball is always on the floor and there is no-one around the scorer).

Fouls in general play
This is obviously the flashpoint with the dive in the Scotland/Czech Republic game. Obviously if the foul is given the game is stopped and a review can be made easily and if the decision is over-turned then the defending team gets an indirect free-kick from where the game was to be restarted. However if a foul isn't given a problem arises, as the game is still live. I think what would have to happen is the "fouled" player would have to immediately call for the review and the referee would have to immediately blow the whistle and stop the game. If it is found that he was fouled the decision would be over-turned, however if the decision is upheld then the defending team should receive an indirect free-kick and the player who called for the review would be booked for simulation (claiming to be fouled when he wasn't).

I would give both teams one incorrect review in the whole game, so it should always be saved for refereeing howlers and not every little incident, to allow the game to flow. I also like that the referee will make a decision and the players can either ask for the 4th official to take a second look or suck it up, there won't be any of this bitching at the ref, any temper-tantrums, any rolling around pretending to be injured etc. Either stick by your convictions and call for a review or get on with the game. However if you call for the review you've got to be 100% sure or you'll lose your review and possibly get booked for simulating a foul.

Anyway, this is just what I think, and it covers errors made in favour of both the attacking team and the defending team. Anyone else got any thoughts of how they would like to see technology implemented?

Goal line technology definately everything else you have suggested wouldn't work in football and create a start stop game. Works perfectly in cricket due to the way it is played but not suitable for football in my opinion.

I would like to see more use made of the 4th official who can see all replays etc on the monitor. All decisions can be made as the game is played (no stopping) so it won't neccessarily affect the flow.

I'd like a bionic leg that kicks the ball even harder than Shearer ever could.

That and goal-line technology. Nothing else. It would ruin the game if you stopped and started, and also, no real opportunity to stop a game and review a decision easily presents itself unless the ball goes dead. I see your suggestion on this Robbo and I still don't like it.

In case you didn't notice, we already get stop-start games where the ref is very busy...either because he likes the sound of his whistle, or because the game is genuinely littered with fouls.

For me, goal-line technology, or at least the availability of replays to check whether the ball has crossed the line or not, is a must. Personally I'd like sensors built into the goal frame and an RFID chip or something like the chips built into credit cards, integrated into the ball. The goal frame could also have rows of LED lights which flash red if its not a goal and green if it is.

I also think its vital for penalty decisions, allowing the ref to check whether fouls were committed inside or outside the box.

All other decisions I think are best left to the ref and assistants.

Technology in football hides the real problems and thats the dishonesty of players and the poor standard of referring at the highest level

I'm not a fan, as soon as video technology is introduced for one thing within 5 years it'll be open season with it done for everything