Goal line technology

As some of you may know I am a referee, I tend to go on about it a bit. I have my opinions on football and when voicing them I often say "trust me, I'm a referee." Today I had one of my best and longest rants concerning football and refereeing and for once I got the general agreement of those around me. I am talking about goal line technology.

What sparked this was the failure for the officials to notice that Frank Lampard's shot against Germany had crossed the line. I am not going to rant on about how it cost England the game or anything because frankly it is a scapegoat, we were comprehensively beaten by an obviously superior team. What I will complain about is the fact that Sepp Blatter (the FIFA president) is denying the use of goal line technology throughout the world but especially in the World Cup, the most prestigious and exciting sporting event in the world. His reasoning for not introducing it is that it will create a gap between the professional and amateur sides of football since lower levels of football will not have access to this technology. His way to beat this was to introduce two additional assistants to stand on the goal line to assess goal and penalty decisions. To put it bluntly, this is bollocks. As a referee in amateur football I know that it is often difficult to find two willing parents or spectators to take on the role of assistant referee, to find four would be near impossible. I have quite often had to referee games without assistants which is quite a challenge.

Technology has been introduced into the professional side of other sports for ages now. Rugby and cricket to name the biggest two. Amateur cricket and rugby still takes place all across the country with just the human officials and everything is fine.

Football is a billion pound industry, millions and millions can rest on one decision, the decision of three men who cannot possibly be everywhere. Any industry where this much money is dependent on people cannot possibly deny the need for technology.

I am not saying goal line technology would have saved England, I am saying it would save blushes, it would save the footballing world, it would save injustices and it would save angering an entire nation.

I hope you are reading this Sepp Blatter, you arrogant, self-involved, ignorant moron.