Watching the Championship game on SKY between QPR and Stoke at Loftus Road last weekend got me thinking, perhaps that's why I got a headache and needed a sleep two minutes later. The incident that got the rusty old hamster wheel turning being the red card shown by referee Andy D'Urso to Potters defender Luke Griffin for what was actually a perfectly legitimate challenge on Rangers winger Hogan Ephraim. The three match suspension has since been rescinded after Stoke's appeal to the Football Association, so all is well and good from that perspective but what about the actual game itself? Now Stoke were already 2-0 down when Griffin got his marching orders so it could be argued that City being reduced to ten men just before half-time made little difference to the actual result of the game. Who are we to know that though?, teams come back from two goal deficits all the time. What can we do about it then? Just because it was QPR 2-0 Stoke in the Championship it doesn't mean that the same couldn't happen in a play-off final or the last match of the regular season, games which are extremely important and can make or break a club in some instances. Imagine Carlisle at Wembley in May, well don't actually - imagine us being promoted automatically, and one of the United players being sent off incorrectly and it might change your mind on having TV replays in the game. Now I know that a lot of you (the three of you) reading this will think that American Football is Rugby Union for big softies who have wear pads and helmets to tackle but they have a very good replay challenge system that works well. Although one quick point is that coaches in the NFL can be punished for incorrect appeals by the loss of a timeout, something that we obviously don't have in football in this country. Both teams are allowed two challenges per half where they are allowed to get a decision overturned if it is deemed wrong by the referee who watches a replay of the incident on a sideline camera, and if they get both challenges right then they are awarded another one. As already mentioned, if they get one wrong then they lose one of the three timeouts that they are allowed per half, so making the coaches have a good think about it before they decide to risk making a challenge. The difference between the two sports is obviously where the system would need a bit of tinkering if you wanted to use it. American Football is a stop-start game whereas English football isn't, but in the time that Griffin made his way from the scene of the non-foul across the pitch to the tunnel TV replays had already showed that the decision to send him off was wrong. So there is plenty of time to look at such things, especially after goals have been scored as well. Goals change games they say, which always seems to be one of the most obviously correct cliches, so what is to stop us having a quick look at a goal to check it while the scoring team trots off celebrating and the conceding side wait for the kick-off. Goals and sending-offs are the only things really that I'd like to see checked, bearing in mind the stoppage of the game anyway, you wouldn't even need to have to such a thing as a challenge system anyway. The speed of the game has got much faster now, and although some referees are full-time you can still hardly expect a 40-year old to be able to keep right up with play when running after a 21-year old professional footballer. It's also worth realising that a retina retains an image for 1/16th of a second before a new image can be imposed on it. So even if the official is in the right place it's possible to miss it, and then you have to bring basic human error into the equation. Technology is surely there to be used, otherwise what is the point of inventing it in the first place? It's surely time to stick a camera underneath (or in) the crossbar to check whether or not a "goal" has crossed the line. To me, although the media themselves have to take some of the blame, football has become so big these days financially that taking a look at a sending-off or a goal, and not really stopping the clock doing it, seems a sensible idea. Don't forget the ex-Carlisle manager who once said : " Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that. " |