Vital Saints Suggests Referees Need Help

Many games today have penalties given that were extremely dubious to say the very least. Red cards were also given out where considerable doubt could safely be said to have existed and were totally unjust.

There has also been countless instances where penalties have not been awarded when they should have been.

Where a referee sees an incident and gives no punishment or a yellow card it seems nothing can be done, but if a red card is issued it can be rescinded on appeal. This is not a just way of proceeding.

Referees do not go into games with the intent of making these errors. Indeed, quite often it is only after slow motion replays that we learn an error has been made. Red cards and penalties are given as often as they are not incorrectly.

Over the season we have seen players injured by tackles that can be called rash or over exuberant without punishment. Unseen, or seen, but the official is unsure as to whether a foul had been committed means players escape without caution.

Technology would cut out a lot of these errors overnight giving fans a much fairer chance of watching teams get the result that they might have without these sometimes seemingly ridiculous errors.

We are told that goal line technology is coming but my question is why not for incidents of importance throughout the game instead of just for the goal line.

When a player commits a foul, or is at least deemed to have by the referee, we often see a delay whilst the players dispute the decision. Yet the action replay would only take seconds.

In fact delays are not necessarily going to happen because a 4th official could contact the referee as soon as the incident has been seen on the monitor.

When players are injured we again see time lost as they are treated. In the same token a player who feigns injury causes the game to stop momentarily as well.

I would suggest that technology could be used much more effectively when it arrives by covering games more thoroughly.

Players knowing that they risk being banned for diving would soon stop. In the same way, off the ball incidents could be reported when they happen.

Players that feign injury through a tackle or some sort of physical contact that didn't happen would again refrain from such actions if a punishment was to be awarded for it.

A player that causes injury from a rash/nasty tackle would also receive due punishment where sometimes they don't.

With Sky persistently showing every error made, and incident not seen by the officials it just has to be time for the authorities to help the under fire match officials.

Do you agree or disagree?

The NFL is a game that has a simple solution. The officials stop the clock. People say that it would slow the game but I disagree. The time taken by using the technology would be minimal compared to the time it takes for players to accept the decision and for play to resume.

Not that many incidents would need to be reviewed per game, but do we really want those that are more difficult for the official to judge, left for the media to dissect after the game?


What options would we open for the officials just by using more technology?

More accurate decision making which would mean less angry players.
Stopping the clock for technology to help make the correct decisions.
Instant punishment for the miscreants no matter the crime.

There are many more benefits to using the technology than there are negatives.

I would also like to see the 4th official given more of a say in the running of a game. He should be able to direct when he sees something that maybe the referee hasn't or has but gives an incorrect decision.

Tell me what you think. Give me your ideas if you think of other ways to stop the rule breakers or ways to use technology.

I still believe that instant correct decisions and punishment are far better than retrospective ones.



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