Former Cricket South Africa chief Ali Bacher has called for the introduction of video technology in football as referring blunders have dominated the ongoing FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
“It’s been working well for cricket, its been working well for rugby and netball but in soccer they are still debating it, I don’t understand because video technology has proved to assist in terms of minimising wrong decisions,” Bacher told BuaNews .
Following two high-profile refereeing errors during the World Cup, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has promised to reopen discussions on the possibility of introducing video replays at football matches.
Video technology has been in operation in cricket for the past 18 years since its introduction in 1992.
“Teams have lost matches in the past for wrong reasons and mostly due to wrong decisions and in cricket we decided to change that,” Bacher said.
The referee at England’s second—round match against Germany last week missed a clear English goal that would have tied the score 2—2. Germany later went on to win the match 4—1.
Hours later, another referee awarded a goal to Argentina but replays showed that goal—scorer Carlos Tevez was clearly in an offside position. The South American giants later beat beat Mexico 3—1.
And both the incidents later forced Blatter to apologise to the losing nations.
Bacher, meanwhile, hailed the South African government for successfully hosting the World Cup.
“Its been terrific and a massive success in uniting the country and we have to thank our government for that. I have never seen them so much involved in any sporting event before,” the former cricket administrator said at a FIFA press conference on Sunday.
Retired South African footballer Mark Fish also shared similar sentiments as he feels “the country is united like never before” for the football tournament.
