Where the Future is Just Too Complicated

For what seems like forever, football managers the world over have been campaigning for the introduction of advanced technology to be used in the game.






Saturday's match between Manchester City and Bolton stirred up the debate once more, as the blues had a Paul Dickov header ruled out, with Bolton boss Sam Allardyce claiming that, despite TV replays proving inconclusive, the correct decision would have been reached "within a minute or two".

The supporters of video technology point to other sports where video replays are used to good effect. Cricket, both codes of Rugby and American Football all take advantage of video replays to determine the right course of action. The doubters however, argue that in the above sports the video referee is only used in cases where the ball is already out of play whereas in football, play could continue for several minutes without stoppage following a goal-line incident.

But one sport has the answer to the very same problem that football is struggling to solve, and has had it for decades.

Forget the notion of slow motion cameras, ultasonic chips in the balls, logic gate devices or Andy Gray's virtual picture, in the low-tech sport of Ice Hockey they've been using old-fashioned human intuition to make that crucial decision.
Behind each goal is one bloke with a button. When he sees the puck cross the line, he hits the button to illuminate a big red light. What on earth could be simpler?

It'd be even easier in the beautiful game too. Rather than the goal official being sat a good few yards behind the goal as they are in the NHL, our referees can get close to the action.

You know it's so simple, it just might work.