Toe the line and bring in new technology

May 17 2009

IT WAS a decision as tight as a cheerleader's lycra.

Yet how many times have you heard this week that Nacho Novo's effort at Easter Road was CLEARLY over the line? Maybe it was. Maybe not. But clearly? My a**e.

We've seen every camera angle, every still photograph, we've heard from every eye witness within 100 yards.

Punters behind the goal, in the main stand, in their armchairs at home, they have all said it.

The only person in the country who could judge it was linesman Martin Cryans and fair play to him, he was in the perfect position. Straddling the deadball line, no-one in his way.

The decision he had to make? Whether he could see all 360 degrees of the ball's circumference beyond the posts.

From 33 yards away. Which means even he can't be certain.

It's not just an argument for technology in football. It's the only argument for technology in football.

Every other decision in a game is subjective, a matter of opinion.

Penalties, fouls, offsides, bookings, reds - all judgment calls and you have to let the ref make them.

Stick another official in the stands with a bank of monitors and a microphone and he might disagree with 10 decisions a game his colleague makes - but it still doesn't mean either of them are right.

It also does not matter how many cameras you have.

I've never been a believer in replay technology in football.

Mistakes and opinions make the game what it is, drive us all potty, keep us all arguing in boozers. One man's assault will always be another guy's hard but fair. You can't take that away from football.

But a ball crossing a line? That should not be an opinion or judgment call.

It's either over or it is not.

And the only way to prove it is with technology that tells you the second the whole ball crosses the line.

Cameras won't do it. You're still relying on the human eye to make the ultimate call.

What it needs is what they were working on up until a year ago. Either a "Hawkeye" system like the one used in tennis, or the ball chipped or coated and readers placed in the posts and bar to clock it.

Both schemes were well under way until UEFA head honcho Michel Platini and his FIFA counterpart Sepp Blatter (right) holed them below the waterline with their hare-brained scheme to have to more assistants run the byeline instead.

So you throw another pair of eyes at what happened on

Wednesday night. What do you get? Another opinion at best.

A body in the way of the guy who's supposed to make the decision at worst, depending on what side of the goal he's at. It's absolute lunacy.

I feel for guys such as SFA chief executive Gordon Smith and Brian Barwick at the FA.

They were pushing this technology hard until they were railroaded by the egomaniacal Blatter and Platini in to binning it.

The only big question I ever hear against bringing it in is cost.

That it's fine for Rangers, Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United but what about Forfar and Peterhead and every other corner of football? Okay, it may be expensive at first.

Maybe even unreliable.

But surely you go to a Nike, adidas or Diadora and ask them to pioneer it in exchange for the ball contracts for your leagues for a certain number of years? And after time it gets cheaper, becomes more readily available and the quality improves.

Same as every other technology.

I used satnavs to take me to the tiniest backstreet in the tiniest village in Holland last summer (not for what you're thinking either).

I played golf last Monday with a guy who had a gizmo that told me how many yards I had to go to the front, middle and back of the green at my local course in Falkirk.

The first DVD player a mate of mine bought was 600 quid and the size of a family hatchback.

Now you can get them in a supermarket for the price of a decent fish supper.

In every walk of humanity we introduce technology that starts off out of reach then gradually becomes a way of life.

It's worth developing. Even if it's only good for a dozen decisions a season, one of them - like the one in midweek - may decide a title.

And you can't put a price on that..