17 Jul 2006(Mon)

July 15, 2006 -- The Zidane-Materazzi incident has been a terrible setback for the game, with its ugly provocation and violent reaction.

But, who knows, some good may actually come out of it in the end.

That is if FIFA decides to introduce video technology to assist the officials and right the many wrongs in the game. Personally, I think FIFA should have done this several years ago, and their reluctance to use video replays is holding back the development of the game.

Shortly after the Zidane dismissal, reports were circulating that video technology had been used to punish the crime. The referee had missed the incident, through no fault of his own as play was going the other way and he has only one pair of eyes, but it had been spotted on a pitch-side monitor replay by the fourth official, who sits in between the two team benches.

FIFA moved quickly to say this was not true, and insisted that the fourth official had seen the head-butt with his own eyes and had informed the referee via their communication system. The world governing body stressed that video technology had not been used at all.

But the big question remains: What is wrong with using a TV monitor and a few replays if it brings to the attention incidents such as these? Is it not good for the game, rather than bad?

Rather than welcoming such a change, FIFA president Sepp Blatter says video technology undermines the authority of the referee. Surely it helps the referee and his assistants, and enables them to make correct decisions.

Blatter says that referees are only human and everyone makes mistakes, but that is not a good enough excuse in the modern game with so much money at stake and so much technology available.

I often think back to the 1998 semi-final between France and Croatia when the French defender Blanc was sent off after Croatia's Bilic pretended he had been seriously hurt in an off-the-ball incident in the box. Blanc received a two-match ban, ruling him out of the World Cup final in his own country, and FIFA refused to change their decision, even though TV replays showed to millions of viewers around the world that Bilic had conned the referee. The cheat had won, and the honest player had lost.

Just think what could have happened in other circumstances. After the game, match officials could have reviewed the TV replays and, on seeing the scale of Bilic's theatrics, cancelled the two-match ban for Blanc.

Would anyone have argued about this? Could anyone in all honesty still have said Blanc deserved to miss the final?

I think FIFA should introduce video technology/replays immediately. There is no argument for saying it would hold up the flow of the game, because there is no flow any more, especially at the World Cup, where the next petty foul and whistle was only a few seconds away.

ends