Big Story

It’s not quite what video replay advocates were hoping for, but Michel Platini is betting the experimental addition of two goal line officials during tonight’s Europa League group stage opener will eventually silence critics and placate fans, managers, and players tired of diving players and dodgy goal mouth calls like the one made at Ashton Gate last month. While the officials have no power to make decisions, the referee can decide whether or not he’ll consult them before pointing for a goal or a goal kick, or a penalty (the Daily Mail provides a neat explanatory diagram).  Imagine, if you will, Tofik Bakhramov’s point of view in 1966 superseded by a very bored man standing next to the German goal, adamantly shouting “no goal.”

Seems like a nice, human solution to an old problem, but of course not everyone’s happy.  Everton manager David Moyes believes it could lead to an increase in penalties given for scrapping in the box: “…you might find they’re giving every single thing and we’ve not had any directive except to say where they’re going to stand and what they’re going to do.”

Yet perhaps the most damning criticism, cited by Petr Cech and Graham Poll, is that introducing two of what UEFA referee panel member Hugh Dallas calls “human cameras” still doesn’t address the problem of human error.  Cech warns “…if there is a really strong shot which bounces quickly the referee can stay wherever he wants but he still has no chance to see it,” and Poll reasons that “tight goalline calls for goals will still be tough to get right. Imagine being asked to stand next to the goal, looking along the goalline, as Fulham’s Paul Konchesky sizes up a thunderbolt shot!”

While there are sure to be some bumps along the way, long term success in preventing incorrect on-field decisions in front of goal will be integral in putting an end to the goal line tech debate.  Platini won’t be forgiven if his two extra officials simply add to an infinite regression of all-too human error; fans will still demand to know if that legit Konchesky goal isn’t given by the bored guys in sweats, “who watches the watchers?”