Thursday, June 21st, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

In June 2010 I wrote an article about the not given goal from England against Germany on the World cup. England lost the game and went out of the tournament. If England could have beaten Germany remains to be seen as Germany looked the stronger team on the day. But being the stronger team does not mean that you will have won the game.

I then pointed fingers at Fifa but also at the English Football Associations from the home countries. As I wrote then:  “Because the FA is, together with the Scottish, the Welsh, the Northern Irish football association and Fifa, a member of the  International Football Association Board (IFAB). It was their decision in March that said NO to goal line technology. They had the key in their hands to unlock the door and make it possible that the use of technology would enter the game.”

Since then we are two years further and still the goal line technology is not in place. But since then the minds have moved and we will see it introduced in the EPL very shortly. For the goal line decisions this is great news in a way. I remember last season in the PL two not given goals when the ball had clearly passed the line. So in the future this no longer could be the case.

Meanwhile Uefa have changed the rules and they now have 6 refs standing on and  around the field. And that would be sufficient to give an answer to those goal line decisions. And it would help the refs and would make sure that the shirt pulling and dragging opponents down in the penalty area with corners and free kicks would be over. The 5^th and 6^th ref would become the eyes in the back of the referee his head. But I think someone has forgotten to tell those refs that they should keep their eyes open.

I remember late in the game Spain – Croatia a Spanish defender trying to get the shirt from the Croatian player even before the game had finished. The ref didn’t see it. The 5^th official didn’t see it. The assistant didn’t see it. The fact that the 5^th official didn’t see it can have a lot to do with the ridiculous decision to put him on the same side as the assistant from last year. So now this means that he cannot see the front of the players and this was where the shirt tugging was taking place. In fact I wrote an article about the wrong placement of the refs a few months ago. And in that article I showed that in this way they cover less of the field than they did before.

But the top dogs at Uefa decided to put them there. One can really wonder on which planet they live.

In that article I also wrote that when things go bad it could be that the 5^th official blocks the view of the assistant. And if you now look at the picture of the not given goal from Ukraine against England on the EC2012 you of course will check first if the ball has passed the line completely.

Ok it did.

But then take a look at the 5^th official who is standing right on the goal line. You can see his head almost on the goal line and he is looking at the incident. Now this 5^th official should have seen the ball pass the line but for some reason he didn’t make the decision. Maybe he wasn’t sure of himself, maybe he was afraid, maybe he was blind, maybe he was… well we can find any excuse we want but his decision or non decision was wrong. (-3 in the ref review we could say).

Now I don’t know as I don’t have the images at my disposal where then assistant was at that moment. But when he was where he should have been (covering the goal line to see if the ball had past the goal line) he was unsighted by the 5^th official. And that is exactly what I said that could happen when I wrote this article  http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/15721 and if you scroll down the page you will read what I said that could happen. If you don’t want to click the link I will just copy the text: “Another thing is that in fact now it could happen that the 5^th ref could step on the goal line to try to see something and by doing this could block the view of the assistant who could be trying to see the same thing (a ball crossing the goal line) from his position. So now not only the players could be blocking the view of the assistant but also the extra ref could block the view of the assistant.”

And looking at the picture it just might have happened that the 5th official was blocking the view of the assistant. One could say he was “Blokhin” the view. 

Well I’m feeling a bit smart for the moment. Smarter than all those big heads from Uefa and Fifa and all those big refs who had agreed to move the 5^th and 6^th official to the other side of the goal compared to the first position they were given.

But the fact is that those 5^th and 6^th refs just stand there and don’t do what they are supposed to do. They are useless. And then to think that just as with the Germany-England game and with the Ukraine-England game the correct decision (a goal) could have been given within seconds. You don’t need 5 or 6 officials to do this. You don’t need 2 more on the other side of the goal. No the solution is very easy: use the video evidence.

On TV both things were clearly visible within seconds. The cheapest and simplest way of dealing with such decisions is to have a camera like we had yesterday and just look at the images. It could have been done in maybe 10 seconds. In fact we don’t need expensive technology. Just a camera in the right place would solve 99% of the problems. And that one missed where it really can not be seen? Well that is the one that Blatter and Platini love so much. As otherwise what could we discuss about after the game in the pub?

They have changed the rules to bring in more officials. Fine if it would work. It obviously doesn’t work. Why don’t Fifa/Uefa show that they care about bringing in honesty in the game and care about giving correct decisions? Why don’t they make it possible to prevent such bad decisions and admit that the human body cannot get it right and needs assistance?

Well we know the answer I think. The only thing they are interested in is the money. They are not interested in the game. They say they are, but their actions show the opposite. The solution is there, is simple and cheap and yet they refuse to do it. Why?

By the way I don’t know what the final outcome would have been in the game between England-Ukraine. Just as I don’t know what the final outcome would have been in Germany-England at the world cup. But I do know that it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Even the pleasure of being right once again when it comes to showing how wrong they are when they make a decision up there in their ivory tower cannot change that. I only want football to be fair and that the decisions made on the field are correct. And if they need video assistant to do that, then why don’t they just do it.

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