By Mihir Bose,
We can debate forever whether Manchester City deserved to win or Tottenham lose. Tottenham, after what happened at the Ethiad, may now feel the gods are against them. Their previous defeat against Stoke was also attended by a referee making decisions which did not stand up to scrutiny.
Yet the really interesting question is why does football continue to shoot itself in the foot?
It is quite clear that if football, like other sports, used video technology, then the referee Howard Webb would have been very aware of two fouls which merited red cards: Joleon Lescott’s elbow against Younès Kaboul and, of course, Mario Balotelli’s stamp on Scott Parker.
In both cases, Webb was clearly unsighted and, had he seen, it is difficult to believe that he would not have flourished a red card. In the case of Balotelli, already on a yellow, Webb would only have had to show another yellow. With video technology, Webb could not have missed either incident.
This is what is making modern football such an absurdity.
Look at it this way. Like many others, I watched this match on television. As it happened, I watched it in a pub on huge screens where the action was much clearer than anything I have at home.
Within seconds of Kaboul going down, the television replays clearly showed what Lescott had done.
This was also the case with Balotelli.
I doubt if the replays following these incidents took more than minute to show, probably less. Now, if there had been an official, shall we call him the fourth official, in a room at the Ethiad watching the screen, he could instantly have whispered in Webb’s ears what had happed and advised him. I doubt if it would have taken more than a couple of minutes at best.
If Webb had chosen to disregard that advice, so be it. That would have been his right. But he would have had the knowledge that the rest of the world had. But with there being no help from video technology, what happened, and continues to happen, is the man in charge of the game knew less of what was happening on his patch then all of us. And given that this man is supposed to be in total control of that path of ground, this is clearly ridiculous. What made it worse, is the Balotelli decision proved a game changer, with a player who should not have been on the field of play scoring the winner.
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The reason why football will not accept video technology is the great and good of football, led by Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer, refuse to accept that video technology has any part in the game. Their argument is that the use of such technology would slow the game down and destroy the natural rhythm of the game. Sunday showed how wrong they are.
Even now, without video technology, the referee, with help of his assistants, adds time on in the way it was rarely done in the past. Sunday saw four minutes added on, with the winner coming in the fourth minute of stoppage time. We have had matches where stoppage time has run to ten or more minutes. Use of video might add a bit more, but nothing dramatic. Unfortunately, football, true to its heritage of being the most conservative of games, refuses to budge.
What makes this doubly absurd is that after the game, the disciplinary authorities have no problem using video technology to punish players. This must be one of the most ridiculous of double standards. Video cannot be used during the game, even if this means it changes the result. But it is alright to use after the game, almost as if making up for not using it during the game. Has any other sport ever taken such a nonsensical position? If there is any sense in this then it escapes me
What it shows is that the football authorities do not seem to care that the game is being brought into disrepute. You could say it provides talking points after the match. But football is vivid enough, and the play we see provides enough talking points, not to require such manufactured ones that reflect so badly on the administrators of the game. The pity is that they do not seem to care we are now witnessing two games, one that officials see and the one the rest of us see, thanks to television. Two for the price of one may be a good slogan for a retailer to lure shoppers. In football, it is just absurd.
Follow Mihir on Twitter @mihirbose
Mihir Bose’s latest book The Spirit of the Game is available from Constable and Robinson