Referral System to continue in Hockey, technology reduces the risk of wrong decisions by referees
FIH has decided to continue with the referral system in hockey for the upcoming champion’s trophy for men in Germany and women in England in the upcoming weeks.
The FIH Champions Trophy (Men) will commence from 31st July to 8th August, 2010 in Monchengladbach, Germany and will include the Olympic champions Germany, world champions Australia, Spain, Netherlands, European champions England and New Zealand.
The FIH Champions Trophy (Women) is scheduled to start from 10-18th July, 2010 in Nottingham, England and will feature the Netherlands; Olympic, World and European champions along with China, defending champion Argentina, Oceana champion New Zealand, Germany and off course the host England.
In the Referral system, playing team can ask for a referral from the video Referee and every team has a right for one referral per match, this will include extra time, and penalty strokes. Teams are allowed to take referrals in 23 meter goal area, which may or could have resulted in award and non-award of goals, penalty corners and penalty strokes. Interesting thing about this referral is that any team player on the turf can request for a team referral, which makes it even more challenging for a team to take referral or not.
The player must use signs to indicate to the ground umpire that he intends to use his team referral. He must do so immediately after the incident or decision which is to be referred as well as confirming this verbally to the Umpire. The player who intends to use the video referral must indicate to the ground umpire the exact nature of foul his team wants to challenge. The ground Umpire will then evaluate the decision in correspondence with the Video Umpire on the wireless and will exchange necessary information with him regarding his decision.
In case a team Referral is retained by the video umpire, the team referring will have its chance to use the referral system again. The award of personal penalty cards may not be the subject of a Team Referral. The video umpire system has been a success story of the FIH policies, which is used at all major events, including the last Olympics. In this system, Field referee can ask for the assistance of Video referee if he needs confirmation of any decision.
This system was tested in champion’s trophy in Melbourne, Australia 2009 and later was introduced in Hero Honda World Cup 2010 in Delhi. Rules of the referral will be the same like the World cup in Delhi, with slight modification from Melbourne, were only Captain can ask for referral.
Referral system came under discussion during the first match of World cup 2010, where it deprived host nation a victory. India scored a beautiful field goal in the 24th minute of the match, but as they scored, South African team asked for a referral for a possible foul that happened a minute ago and initiated an Indian attack. Immediately after the video review, the goal was cancelled and instead a short corner was given to South Africans.
After the decision, Indian team was furious about the issue as the time span after that the referral was asked, was too much as India was able to score in that time. Critics say that this system will decrease the fastness of the game, for that FIH is making new rules, like off side and self pass on free hits.
After the successful referral in Hockey and Cricket now, FIFA should also think about the referral system. This dire need was quite evident after the two wrong decisions in the England versus Germany match and Mexico versus Argentina. FIFA has excused to the teams for the wrong decisions and is considering the proposition of implementing goal line technology in the future.
Advance technology off-course increases the credibility of the game and decreases the chances of wrong decisions, which vanishes the hopes of a world class team to reach finals. However, on other hand this can reduce the natural charm of game, as Referrals some time seriously affects the pace of game.
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