19 June 2012

Ukraine's no goal ...

I am happy to see England move on to the quarterfinals of Euro 2012, but today's win over Ukraine shows why replay needs to be a part of professional football.  The image below (cropped from televised replay) shows that Marko Devic's shot was clearly a goal, despite not being called a goal.  Click on the image for a larger size.
The referee standing along the goal line did not call this a goal.  I really can't blame the referee given how fast the above play moved in real time.  There may have been poetic justice in the "no goal" call because Ukraine was offside earlier in the attack, but that doesn't change the fact that replay is needed to decide calls like the one shown above.  Goal-line technology is here and is easy to implement.  The above image could have been created seconds after the play and a decision could have been made within a minute of stopping play.  There aren't that many goals in a typical football game, and there certainly aren't that many controversial goals.  In a given tournament, there are, what, one or two (at most) controversial goals that could benefit from replay?

Join the 21st century and get the call right!

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