Hands Up

November 26, 2009

World Cup qualifying finished on a sour note when France defeated Ireland with a controversial goal. Who is to say what would have happened next had the goal not happened? There is every chance that France would still have gone on to win, but the point is that we will never know.

Now there is no way that technology can not be brought into the game. The game needs it and needs it in order to eliminate incidents such as this. If the referee is the only person on the field who hasn’t seen something, that makes a mockery of the sport.

Martin Hansson was a good referee and one wonders how he could have made such a basic mistake. Firstly, players don’t react like the Irish players did unless there was some merit to it. Why would they protest like that unless there was something they are protesting about? Players don’t protest just for the hell of it.

Hansson should have taken the time to liaise with his linesman and then flat out asked Henry if he had touched the ball with his hand? In that instance, it is unlikely that Henry would have flat out lied.

The thing is, is that incidents like this are only going to grow at the World Cup proper. At the stakes get higher and higher, players are going to do whatever they can to gain an edge. They will dive in order to milk a penalty.

The game is really fast – too fast for one referee and two linesmen. If they are not going to bring extra officials into the game, then video technology would have to be just about mandatory. This thing is that the whole world watches the World Cup and you don’t want further embarrassments such as this. You could have millions of dollars in soccer betting change hands all because of a horrible mistake by the referee.

Now is time for Sepp Blatter to show some real leadership and improve the sport for the better. And as long as players know they can get away with these kind of antics, they will continue to try them. FIFA preaches fair play but when push comes to shove they turn a blind eye.

Ireland was already upset before the game started. They instituted seedings so it wouldn’t be a clean draw where any team could play any other team. Then Ireland were the only of the four unseeded teams who had to play the second team away.

FIFA needs to be careful that they don’t divide the World Cup between the have and the have-nots.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about greyhound betting.

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