OT – Instant Replay (primarily in soccer)
There has been a bit of talk around these parts about soccer lately, some giving reasons as to why it will never catch on in America. I have read in a few places, FIFA’s reluctance to implement something like instant replay as a reason American’s will be hesitant to embrace to sport on a constant basis (I've also heard other, more prominent reasons, nonetheless).
My feeling on the matter is that instant replay in soccer is, for the most part, a mistake. Soccer is a very fast paced game, and things such as offsides have a similar essence as balls and strikes do for baseball. Offsides has always had a bit of a human element of the game, and while that does not make for a great argument (saying it should stay that way because it has always been that way is a terrible argument), I believe that more arguments can be made for how stopping play to review offsides can hurt the game. First off, stopping soccer at anytime other than half or final seems like calling a TV timeout after a bucket is scored in basketball. It really hurts the pacing of the game, which is such a huge thing for soccer. Also, what happens when a play is overturned? He actually was offsides, ok, easy, but what if he wasn’t and was called offsides. Do you give the team a free kick from the spot of the miss-called offsides? This can lead to some very unfair free kicks. I think this is very complicated and there isn’t a better way of handling it.
The only replay I would consider, instead, would be for moments on goals, such as in the England/Germany game. And in this case, what I'm proposing isn't even replay. Perhaps have a camera focused on the end line, and if the ball is clearly in the goal (whole ball clearly passed the end line) then the forth referee, or whoever is watching the camera (maybe a fifth ref), turns on a red light or something immediately to indicate a goal. This isn’t really replay, but it uses technology to determine things so detrimental to the game without slowing it down. Again, you only indicate goal when it is clearly scored (not objective to the naked eye in real time).
I also heard at at least one point during the World Cup that some are in favor of having two more referees at each end line, to help determine on things like goals and penalties on free kicks, corners, and other what-nots that happen in the box. This I think is the best approach, but how realistic is it to have two more referees for each game. In all honesty, it seems a bit much, and the complexities of the referees working together with the center man would need to be fleshed out.
Anyway, those are my feelings on replay in soccer (or use of technology, not necessarily replay). I would like to hear what others think about this. Beyond soccer, what do people think of replay in other sports, what works, what doesn’t. I think for the most part, college football seems to keep a relatively equal pace to what it used to, so replay hasn’t hurt it too much, and the benefits seem to outweigh any negatives. Replay in basketball on the other hand has at times gotten out of hand (here’s looking at you last two minutes of at least one of the NBA finals games, just to determine who the ball went off of). So any input, on any replay, technology, whatever, futbol, football, soccer, hockey, baseball. Let’s me hear the extent people think this should be implemented into sports.
2 counter arguments (for soccer at least):
1. Tevez was offsides by a mile. Well, more like 2 yards...but still...
2. A goal is a goal is a goal. If the ball crosses the plane it is a goal regardless of human error or not.
To make the the game fair, any and all means should be used to make sure the correct call is made. Of course, I mean this for decisions like that, where it's one thing or another. Not like judgment calls such as a pass interference or a foul called in basketball. Basically, if it affects the score of the game I believe it should be reviewable.
Or just give managers the chance at one review per half or something like that (only on plays where there was a goal or a goal disallowed).
EDIT: i will post my opinion on other sports later when I'm not at work. Stupid work, go away! I need to mgoblog.
If FIFA were to agree to anything at all, it would probably be replay for goal line situations. There is no way that they will go to a replay system for all offsides calls. If the player was called offsides and he socred (ie Dempsey in game vs. Algeria) would the goal be counted? Lets say a player makes a run, but is called offsides incorrectly by the linesman and the whistle blows before the player can shoot it. What happens then? Do they give the team a free kick at the location where the linesman thought the offsides occured?
I don't really know much about what has been proposed and what has been rejected, but I don't see FIFA doing anything about this.
Some writeups via soccer blogs:
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Blatt…
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/blog/dirty-tackle/post/FIFA-…
http://usa10kit.com/2010/06/28/the-solution-to-the-reffing-problems-is-…
Edit: Quote from Baltter
"One of the main objectives of FIFA is to protect the universality of the game of association football. ... If you are coaching a group of teenagers in any small town around the world, they will be playing with the same rules as the professional players they see on TV. "No matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being. This being the case, why remove the responsibility from the referee to give it to someone else? "Fans love to debate any given incident in a game. It is part of the human nature of our sport."
Quoting Baltter hurts your case, it doesn't help it.
I would like to see some sort of replay system or some use of technology by FIFA. I only quoted Blatter to make a point that he is very much against change and technology. Blatter stepping down is the only way I see any changes coming to current FIFA rules.
As long as instant replay doesnt start covering fouls in sports or balls/strikes in baseball, I wont complain
Can we stop calling the sport "futbol"? Okay, you know the Spanish name for the sport. Yippie.
El hockey. But I'll change the name just to make all the non-spanish speakers or elite spanish speakers happier.
Please don't call it "instant replay", nothing instant about it.
With the extra minutes thing in soccer they could review and not even stop the game, just add a goal or subtract a goal as needed, and let the fellas continue jogging around out there.
Get the call right. That should be the ultimate goal.
In your example, if someone is called offside and later determined that he was not, give an indirect free kick, or maybe just a throw-in from that spot on the sideline. I think, though, that most of the blown calls in this WC and other soccer I have watched are missing offisides, not calling them too much. Officials will be even more hesitant to call offisides with replay, because they know they can overturn if they missed it.
With goals, your suggestion (basically what hockey has) is perfect. In the case of the England goal, they could review it between then and the next stoppage, and reset afterwards (wipe any fouls, goals, but not cards in the meantime). If the ref calls a goal that turns out to be incorrect on review, I think a goal kick is fair.
Fouls will always be judgement calls, so there is no way to review them (as in US-Slovenia). But, you can't fix them all. I think my solutions (which are based on the successful models from hockey and football (the real kind) are easy and reasonable without ruining the pace too much.
What about abolishing the offsides rule? Let's mitigate the chance for human error by taking out one of the most difficult calls for a ref to make in any sport.
I know it's a huge leap for the sport but what's the worst that could happen.... more offense / goals?
That or everyone will stay back to defend and it will be the worst thing to watch EVER!
um, because it's critical to the entire fuctioning of the sport. Would work about as well as removing first downs.
We could potentially remove goaltending from basketball as well.
I can't figure out why they don't just add two refs for the World Cup, one at each end (out of bounds) by the goal, with clearly-defined roles. Then you don't need replay. Of the four bad calls that I can think of, three would likely have been different (England's goal not getting called, the egregious missed offsides call on Tevez, and perhaps also the Edu goal that was disallowed (the theory being that the on-field ref would be less likely to make phantom foul calls when things get rough, calling them only when he actually sees them) -- I doubt the Dempsey phantom offsides call would have been changed, since the linesman has the better angle (Tevez was so far offsides that the goal ref could have called it from his angle).
From what I understand (which granted, isn't much), part of what FIFA wants to do is make the game the same for the poorest countries as it is for the ones that can easily afford any technological advancements. I think I have an easier solution.
Put a "goal judge", if you will, behind each net. Or, if you choose, put him on the end line on either side. Put a flag in his hand. Make both the goal judge and his flag very conspicuous. When the ball goes over the line, the goal judge raises a flag. If necessary, the goal judge can confer with the referee in charge to determine anything borderline. No technology necessary. Between the two of them they should be able to determine whether the ball crosses a white line laid out on green grass.
People only care about replays after scored goals, and there's already a stoppage anyways, it doesnt affect the pace.
I'd like to see FIFA use replay to penalize divers. I don't know if it's been suggested on this board before...but with a few suspensions and some hefty fines for "simulation" or "embellishment," I think FIFA could really clean up the tournament.
Unless they don't want to.