Vide(n)o technology. I say yes

After that, now infamous, handball by some Frenchman in Paris last week, calls for video technology to be introduced to football were heavily re ignited and debated as possibly being the saviour of salvaging what little integrity football has left to keep.

With football way ahead in the popularity stakes of sports in this country, it is ironic then that it seems to drag behind the other big sports in England when it comes to how the game is administered and officiated. Week in week out fans sit and debate about the numerous amounts of contentious decisions that take place whether it is English football, European football or in the case of Ireland last week, international football. It could be said that video technology would put an end to this and while this may please many fans who watch decisions go against – and sometimes for – their team, it could end what we love talking about on a Monday morning at work or school.

Now is the time for Fifa and Uefa to concentrate more on the idea of implementing video technology instead of just making sounds about it because of what is at stake in football these days. The sport has become more like a business, with the amount of money involved at the top end of the game, seemingly obscene. Decisions cost teams matches therefore costing them money. Imagine if technology had allowed the referee to spot the Henry handball and Ireland had in turn won the match. Their players would have enjoyed a once in a lifetime opportunity while the FAI would have reaped the commercial benefits. Instead they don’t. Possibly this is a reason why football’s governing body continue to abstain from using the technology, if we are led to believe conspiracy.

With the ante in football so crucial today, Fifa have to step up and look at ways of introducing video technology to the sport. Mind you, they have to be very careful of how they would operate it because like any great idea, if dispatched wrongly it could cause great problems and set very dangerous precedent. Rugby, tennis and cricket have used technology to their advantages to the point where you could say it has evolved the sport.

The recent decision to introduce the referral system in cricket was met by some derision but in reality, will improve the game as it will erode the number of mistakes made by match officials. One thing should be made clear however. The technology is not there as a way, as people have suggested, of undermining match officials, it is simply there to aide and ease the pressure on them. After all, they are just human.

Fifa should certainly look at how other sports have used video technology to their advantage and like tennis or cricket possibly allow the two teams a certain number of challenges per match. It would also increase the fairness of competition, something that seems to be dying in today’s game as the Irish would advocate.

There is no easy answer to how it should be done but as other sports have proved, it can be done. It has to be introduced soon though because as long as the controversy continues and the stakes in football rises it could prove detrimental to the livelihoods of someone as high as the manager of a club right down to the longstanding tea lady.