Fifa have today refused to enter into a debate over the introduction of video technology after officiating errors contributed to World Cup defeats for England and Mexico. The governing body did not send any officials with responsibility for referees to its daily media briefing, and their spokesman Nicolas Maingot responded to all questions on the subject by saying he was not competent to discuss decisions by referees or football's rules-making panel, which has previously rejected the use of video technology.
"We obviously will not open any debate," Maingot said. "This is obviously not the place for this."
Television replays have shown that Frank Lampard's 38th-minute shot against Germany bounced down from the crossbar and over the goal line, but the Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved away England's appeals. The goal would have levelled the game at 2-2, but Germany consequently went on to win 4-1.
Later in the evening, Argentina's first goal in a 3-1 win against Mexico was scored by Carlos Tevez from an offside position but was allowed by Italian referee Roberto Rosetti after he consulted his assistant. Mexico players protested to the match officials after seeing replays on a stadium's big screen.
The former Holland forward Johan Cruyff joined the debate today, voicing his support for goal-line technology to help referees. "Cameras in the goal are fine," Cruyff wrote in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf , "but if you also link that to offside decisions it gets tricky."
The international players' union, Fifpro were more openly critical of Fifa's refusal to budge on the issue. "We can do it, the football world wants it and yet it is still being thwarted, that is unacceptable," said Tijs Tummers, secretary of FIFPro's technical committee, today. "The error during the Germany-England match would have been the easiest to avoid. There is not a single convincing argument against the use of goal-line technology.
"With offside incidents, it is slightly more complicated, but the Argentinian goal which was allowed to stand shows the failure of the system even better. Referee Roberto Rosetti had a long consultation with the assistant referee, who was in contact with the fourth official via a microphone.
"He would undoubtedly have heard that Tevez was offside, the whole stadium had already seen it by then via images on the scoreboard. Yet, because the referee was not allowed to rely on video images, he had to award the goal which he knew should have been disallowed.
"You could see the doubt in his eyes. Technology does not undermine the authority of referees, it only helps them."
The Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who attended both games on Sunday, has always strongly opposed introducing any form of video technology, however. "Let it be as it is and let's leave football with errors," Blatter said after video experiments were halted at a March 2008 meeting of the rules panel, the International Football Association Board. "Other sports regularly change the laws of the game to react to the new technology. We don't do it and this makes also the fascination and the popularity of football."
The voting structure for decisions by IFAB, which comprises Fifa and the four British national federations, means Fifa can block any proposal. The 2008 meeting rejected the Hawk-Eye system which is used in tennis to judge line calls. The football version used 12 cameras around the stadium to determine the ball's position over the goal line and send a message to the referee.
The subject was debated again last March and rejected. Blatter said then that video technology was too expensive to apply worldwide, would break up the flow of games and was not always conclusive.
"No matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being," Blatter said.
World Cup referees are scheduled to meet the media on Tuesday at their training base near Pretoria, but are forbidden to discuss their own or colleagues' match decisions. At a previous media session last Monday, referees who made disputed calls at this World Cup, including Koman Coulibaly of Mali and Stephane Lannoy of France, did not attend.
Fifa does, however, plan to stop controversial incidents being shown on big screens inside stadiums in future.
© Guardian News and Media 2010
