Gordon Hook

Liberal Democrat District Councillor for Buckland and Milber Learn more

Robbery at the Hawthorns: If Technology Exists, We Should Use It!

by admin on 8 December, 2018

Both of my regular readers will know that I am a very keen sports fan. A ( sadly) former participant I now am reduced to the role of spectator and critic; I would prefer to still be playing but the bones don’t seem to feel the same way. So it was that last evening I sat down with an excellent meal and decent red to watch “my team” on the box. Supporting Aston Villa all my life has not always been an easy ride, indeed it is fair to say it has rarely been an easy ride. For those who don’t know, and are still reading, they are one of the truly ( historically) great clubs of football, but have fallen on hard times. ( I have been there with them on previous occasions). However now under new management, they appear on the proverbial cusp of regenerating themselves and are moving nicely up the Championship league table.
They were playing local rivals away from home last night and a win would have taken them into the promotion places. Into injury time added on at the end of the game and leading 1-2 the opposition were awarded a goal which everyone in the stadium could see was the product of at least one foul and two handball offences. Unfortunately, neither the referee nor the linesman could have been watching at the time. Perhaps they were feeding the dog that was helping them around the field or repainting the white stick they carried, who knows, but they avoided seeing the glaring breach of the rules and awarded the home side a goal, and so the game ended 2-2 and instead of 3 points my side left with 1. To the non addicted that may be very small beer, but to me, it could be the difference between promotion back to the Premier League and not, come the end of the season, and certainly made the difference between an excellent night and a dismal retreat to the bedroom to pummel an innocent pillow and give my long-suffering and almost equally innocent wife an ear bashing on the injustices of life.
So what is the point of this lengthy outpouring of personal grief? For many years various different sports have agonised over the use of technology to resolve disputes and ensure as much as practical honest and just decisions are arrived at. Cricket, rugby and many others now use technology to establish if a catch has been taken or a try scored. To be fair football is only a few years behind the times as “goal line ” technology is now being slowly introduced to establish if the ball has actually crossed the goal line. Football IMO still has a long way to go. The TV audience knew within a nanosecond of the various offences being committed last evening that an injustice was about to be perpetrated, and so it proved. Agony for the visiting team and their supporters, delight for the home fans…but a singularly undeserved reward for cheating. I don’t say the ref or linesman cheated, I don’t for one moment think they did. They were plain incompetent, but the players involved knew, and in ” the good old days” at least some would have owned up and confessed to the offence. Not so today. Cricketers no longer “walk” when out, they wait around in the hope of “getting away with it”, and so it was last evening. The Baggies forward knew full well he had handled the ball into the Villa goal but accepted the rewards of cheating. If players can’t be trusted ( and clearly they can’t) then technology must take over. To add insult to injury after the game the Baggies manager praised his “goal” scorer for his honesty in admitting, back in the changing room after the game, that he had indeed handled the ball into the goal.
I hate injustice in any form wherever and whenever it is found. There are more important issues of course, and I’ll not even begin to list them here, but the principle remains the same. Consequently, I believe very strongly that where justice can be obtained by scientific means then it should be applied to any situation. Wake up the FA.
There, I’ve got that off my chest and am grateful for the opportunity of so doing. If anyone has read this far, I thank you for indulging me and hope you can agree with my conclusion?

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