Disallowed soccer goal reignites technology debate

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Crystal Palace disallowed goal (With Warnock interview)

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sourced by Peter Pettigrew

At the weekend, Crystal Palace scored a goal in open play. Crystal clear, you might say. The ball bobbled in front of the striker and a defender - the striker reached it first and stuck it beyond the marooned keeper into the corner of the net. So far, so routine. But what happened next has set the soccer world aflame with impassioned debate.

The ball struck part of the goal and rebounded out. Not the post or the crossbar, but the crosspiece at the back of the net that holds it to the ground - fully 6 feet beyond the goal line. Somehow, incredibly, neither the referee or linesmen saw that the ball had crossed the line and waved play on - to the bewilderment of both teams.

After the game, the 'goal that never was' rapidly became a cause celebre for those who wish to introduce technology into the game to prevent spurious decisions like this affecting the outcome of matches. On the one hand are the allies of change, yet a surprising amount of opinion out there is resisting calls for modernisation. The argument runs that refereeing mistakes like this are part of the very lifeblood of the game and that expunging them will only serve to make the game duller and more tediously professional than it already is.

The FA was quick to act - suspending the referee within a matter of days and the debate about whether this should be the tipping point for introducing ancillary technology to help referees make better decision is filling the back pages of the papers.

I for one aren't sure that this isn't another example of the creeping kill-joyism that is turning football from a flawed but viscerally exciting sport into a kind of sporting accountancy. Not everything in life should be corralled into a pen of perfectionism. Football in particular thrives on a bedrock of injustices. Individual tackles are still stewed over in pubs up and down the land. Questionable refereeing is one of the things that brings all football fans together. Whichever side you support, "who's the w****er in the black" is one of the few questions that is eternal and immutable throughout the game.

By making the game more perfect, we are also robbing it of it's personality.