All Hands On Deck

By now I assume most sports fans saw the highlights of the World Cup qualifiers yesterday which yielded some exciting finishes, surprises and one controversy that won't go away. The controversy is what we will examine today at the Shoppe.

With the game in extra time, and both France and Ireland needing a goal to advance to South Africa for the World Cup, the ball was played in by a France midfielder to two (2) France players in offside position, the linesman didn't see it that way and play continued. Then, France forward and scoring threat Thierry Henry tried to gain control of the ball along the touch line and did so using his hands (which is illegal in soccer), not once, but twice - which went uncalled by the referee - then played the ball across the mouth of the goal where it was tipped in and France advances to the World Cup.

In sports, the referee is the final word, and in this case, the referee and his assistants were not in the proper spots to make the correct calls. This happens in all sports - a baseball umpire being on the wrong side of the bag, a football referee not being along the endzone line or trying to avoid being hit and missing a call, a hockey ref not being stationed behind the net properly to see if the puck crossed the line. Being in the right place is part of the training referees go through, but sometimes situations can't be avoided (like evading a 260 lbs linebacker), but thankfully sports have found a solution for this problem - the instant replay!

With the amount of TV coverage at almost all professional and college games, leagues have taken advantage of this by introducing instant replay. It works on a limited basis for most leagues, but there is always a play that happens that for some reason isn't allowed to be "challenged" by replay. Those are the ones that seem to swing games or playoff series.

Whether it is a pass interference play in football or trapping the ball in baseball why won't leagues allow replay to be used for all plays? One argument is always time. If leagues allowed all plays to be reviewed, then the games would move slower then they already are. Who really needs a 6hr Red Sox vs. Yankees game - oh wait those already happen, thank you Joe Girardi.

Realistically though, all plays are reviewed. Don't the TV networks show you replays of almost every pitch, basket or football play? It would make the most sense to have a permanent replay official at all the stadiums or arenas who basically watches TV and contacts the official on the field if something is wrong before the next play starts. It is too simple of a solution to really work.

For example, the booth official is watching the France vs. Ireland soccer game. Approximately 5 seconds after the goal is scored Setanta was already showing a replay of what was thought to be the winning goal. The replay official clearly sees that the goal should be disallowed because of either being offside or handball. He signals the decision to the ref via a pager and before Henry and his teammates even can line up to kick the ball back into play, the goal is wiped off the score board and play continues. Was that so hard?

Soccer has experimented with replay technology in the past, going so far as to put microchips in the ball so that when it crossed the goaline, a buzzer would go off and the ref alerted to a score. This was eventually scrapped after testing because the technology was actually affecting the ball and how it behaved. Unfortunately, this must have left a bad taste in their mouths and now, without the use of replay a country is going to the World Cup without winning fair. Ireland is asking for a replay of the entire match, which I doubt they will receive, and therefore it will be a long 4 years for the Irish fans.

In all of this replay mess, fans just want the correct call. They know the refs, umpires and linesman are human and make mistakes, but with the technology to get the calls right, we can fix these small problems.