Tuesday 17 April 2012

What An Incredible Fluke XXXIX!


Goal line technology is not enough and the repeated mainstreaming of the state of play in the development of this limited technology every time there is a colossal (and public) travesty of justice in football is becoming somewhat hackneyed.

The mainstream media are also responsible for the framing of this technology argument - the limited msm exposure for Wenger's views on video technology across the field of play (as opposed to merely goal line) being merely the latest example.

The key aspects being addressed here are the numerous occasions where the outcome of football matches are being directly decided by incorrect applications of the rules of the game by referees.
The aim, surely, in any balanced sport is to eradicate these frequent errors to return some semblance of integrity to the sport.

Well, no...
... that is not the strategy as it happens.
The strategy is rather to be dragged kicking to the repeatedly delayed start date for the limited use in some leagues of goal line technology by 2013/14 season while protesting that even this small concession will destroy the game as we know it.

But the game as we know it nowadays is a gambling extravaganza - a £10 million bet on a EPL game on the day of  match is par for the course in the Asian underground markets.
The volume on some major turnover events is several billion pounds - this is the crux of the matter.

It is an unfortunate hyperreality that referees have become the conduit of choice for the fixing of matches but their field-of-play omnipotence made them the obvious target. Across the world, various tactics are being used to offset these fixes - changing referee late on, only announcing appointments close to kick off, using foreign officials etc.

Video technology across the pitch with each manager having three calls per game would transform the sport into the competitive spectacle it once was. For it is not just the 'seeing' of events on the pitch that matters but also the incorrect interpretations of the rules of the game.
All communications should be on open-mike and the selection of match officials needs to be randomised having taken into account any inappropriate linkages recognised in the patterns of previously refereed matches.

The only losers are the clubs and bookmaking organisations that control match officials and the vast array of insider gamblers and consortia that benefit from the contorting of your footballing realities for their criminalised and proprietary profit.

Still, football being the sport most corrupted by the influence of insider betting...
... and the insiders in football being the slowest to react to the benefits of video technology to prevent such criminality.

What a weird fluke!