FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa: FIFA represses re-plays inside the Stadium
In another move to save its falling grace, a move of extreme ignorance, FIFA has taken the decision that no-replays will be shown of controversial incidents inside the stadiums during the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
After a scandalous round of sixteen stage FIFA was under pressure to re-think its decision on technology and replays in important matches. FIFA, clearly under influence has some major rationalization to do. The first of the controversies came to the front after Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany in England’s round of sixteen match was not given as a goal despite the ball clearly going over the line in replays.
One might even say that a replay was not needed to confirm the goal as many of the fans and the players on the field who did not have the luxury of watching the replays, testified to the fact that they saw the ball crossing the line. Only if the linesman was doing the job he was supposed to do and the referee was in a proper position, would such an incident not have taken place.
FIFA’s latest decision has come after replays of the off-side goal were shown during the Mexico vs. Argentina match. After watching the replays Mexican players stormed the referee and the fourth official in order to get some questions and protest against the injustice that was done to them. This behavior in itself is not appreciable but what can one expect after referees make blunders which eventually become the cause of elimination of a team from such an important event.
FIFA needs to make some sensible changes to the system to correct its flaws. In other sports such as baseball, referees are held accountable for their wrong decisions on the field and rightly so because no one has the rights to make such wrong calls during a match and then get away with them as well.
FIFA ask players to respect the referees and not swear at them or protest their decisions and also ask the fans to behave themselves inside the stadiums but how is that possible when such mistakes constantly cost teams’ important league match points and vital eliminations from cup competitions.
A simple fix would be to introduce replay decisions for off-side calls and goal line disputes. This will add technology to the game, increase the level of fairness and therefore there will be a significant decrease in the amount of disputed decisions during the games.
FIFA also need to take a step back and take a long hard view at what they are doing to football as a sport. People love football; there is no question about that. It is the most watched game around the world and the FIFA World Cup itself is the most viewed sporting event around the world. FIFA are being stubborn in not recognizing that their decisions are the ones that are wrong and their steps are not beneficial for the games or the fans. Instead they are actually against the games interest and football as a whole.
FIFA in banning the replays of controversial incidents has created a further problem for them. Firstly who decides what is controversial or not? Do the same referees and officials who made those wrong decisions decide? How do we even know if something is controversial? Usually calls for goal line incidents and off-sides are controversial and become the most debated decisions of the match. So will these incidents be censored from the screens? What happens if there is a tackle which deserves a red card? Will that incident be replayed or not?
There are a lot of ambiguities in this policy. Also FIFA’s selfish approach is yet again evident, what about the fans that come to watch the game? Don’t they deserve fair value for their money? Don’t they deserve to decide what is controversial or not themselves? Are they being denied their right to make that choice?
It is apparent that FIFA has only made this decision to save its dying grace. This decision saves FIFA some respect in the eyes of ordinary football viewers as there will be no controversial replays in the stadiums, fans won’t boo the officials and teams won’t ask questions during the games, thus everything will be smooth for FIFA.
Smooth for FIFA yes. But smooth for football? Certainly not.
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