is this the worst decision ever?
i think so! poor spurs lost out on victory to man utd last night, when a spectacular goal that was half a mile over the line was not given. now, i know i hate man utd, but if that goal had been at the other end, i’m not sure this would have happened. in fact, it seems that such blatantly wrong decisions have a tendency to be made against opposition teams at old trafford. we need video technology now!!!
January 5th, 2005 at 10:33 am
what you need is a microchip inside the football to tell you when it’s crossed the line. which i think is being introduced for a few games this season.
the thing i found impressive about this was the way united reacted to the goal. get the ball back into play quick as possible and act like nothing happened. you have to admire that sort of bullying of a ref
January 5th, 2005 at 10:37 am
I wonder will we hear Sir Alex complain about the referee making a bad decision.
January 5th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
yep fmk, that goal-line technology seems like a great idea - is it in use elsewhere? i’m sure man u would still be able to bribe the refs though :>
January 5th, 2005 at 8:02 pm
not sure if it’s in use - i think they’re going to try it in the fizzy cola cup or whatever it’s called these days. and fergie came out today and said that the decision showed why video technology needs to be introduced. even fergie couldn’t claim not to have seen this one.
but to be fair to united - they were the better team throughout the game <runs and hides>
January 5th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
ah yes, but as even my beloved notts forest know only too well, being the better team throughout does not entitle you to 3 points
actually, the more i think about it, there was no need for technology here - if roy carroll had any decency he would have just fessed up and let spurs have their goal!
January 6th, 2005 at 9:31 am
roy carroll fess up? what are you trying to do to the game?!?
January 6th, 2005 at 10:57 am
lol well i seem to remember watchign a match on sky once and some player (robbie fowler???) was brought down in the penalty area and he actually told the referee it *wasn’t* one!
January 6th, 2005 at 12:07 pm
and the reason you remember that?!? it’s the only time it’s ever happened!
(actually, was that a game against arsenal, and seaman was in goal, and fowler was having difficulty getting onto the england squad, and seaman still had influence back in those days …?)
January 7th, 2005 at 10:52 am
These situations are admittedly rare, but there are a couple of other that spring to mind:
1) Paolo Di Canio (playing for West Ham v. Everton IIRC) caught a cross rather than shooting for goal to call on the physio for the opposition ‘keeper, who was lying injured on the ground.
2) In this season’s Carling cup, in a match between Yeovil Town and Plymouth Argyle (http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;?xml=/sport/2004/08/26/sfncar26.xml&sSheet=/sport/2004/08/26/ixfooty.html - no HTML allowed in these comments I notice!), a Plymouth player had put the ball out of play so that an injured Yeovil player could receive attention. From the throw-in, a Yeovil player threw it to a teammate, who proceeded to kick the ball back to the Plymouth goalie. Unfortunately, the ‘keeper wasn’t paying attention and the ball went into the net. In an amazing act of sportsmanship, Yeovil allowed Plymouth to walk the ball into the net from the kick-off, in order to right the previous wrong. For the record, Yeovil won the game.
It’s stories like those that suggest that there’s some level of decency still present in the game.
As for the goalline technology, apparently Adidas are due to demonstrate it to a FIFA meeting in February. It was initially suggested that it may be trialled for the Carling Cup final. However, since the FA have a ball deal with Mitre, it’s highly unlikely that an Adidas ball would be allowed for that fixture.
January 8th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
these incidents could only spring to your mind really statto!!
and sorry about no html in the comments - think that’s something to do with the mt blacklist plugin i use to stop comment spam - far from ideal but i don’t have time to look into tweaking it at the mo…