Impact of technology on referees making decision in sports

In recent years, there have been a number of contentious decisions made by referees, particularly in football games played in the top leagues around the globe, including La Liga in Spain and the English premier league in England. The majority of these contentious decisions concern goals and penalty kicks that were wrongly granted or rightfully denied. An outstanding illustration is a justly disallowed goal by Frank Lampard in a 2010 World Cup match between England and Germany. Frank scored the goal with England down two goals, and most people contend that if the goal had been allowed, they would have had a better opportunity of tying the score. German took the lead and outscored the opposition 4-1 to win the game. After that incidence, several poor calls occurred which has led to introduction of goal line technology in some leagues to help referees make decisions involving whether the ball has crossed the line or not but FIFA opposes this move.

Articles Opposing

Mathieu, Winand. "Video Refereeing Could Be A Major Own Goal For Football – Here's Why." The Conversation, 2017, http://theconversation.com/video-refereeing-could-be-a-major-own-goal-for-football-heres-why-66000.

The author of article “Video referring could be a major own goal for football,” Mathieu Winand has done some research concerning video refereeing in football matches and conclude that it could be a major blow to the soccer game. Though most of the football managers and coaches are ready to embrace this technology, a wide section of fans are opposed to this idea citing very obvious reasons which I also consider justifiable. The FIFA also share these concerns and think that this technology is not good for this game. Most players and manager would use this technology to gain a competitive advantage because it would involve several breakages of the flow of the game therefor helping some teams to ease the pressure. Again, some fans fear that the passion and enjoyment of the game would get lost because there would be a lot of debating involving crucial decisions especially when states are high. The research has proven both the atmosphere and debating to be important to fans during the games as far as satisfaction and experience are concerned. In the research conducted at the University of Starling in Scotland, aauthor found that most of the Scottish football fans argued that the goal-line technology introduced in 2014 in their league eliminated the atmosphere that usually occurs when there is the contentious goal and therefore reduced the debate involving key decisions. The author also points at the expensive equipment required to install this technology. So it is clear that fans are not favoring these technologies which could prove costly because if football agencies insist on introducing them the game might attract few fans and this could lead to the collapse of some clubs and overall loss of enthusiasm about the game.

Mathew, Lindsay."Former Scottish Referee Warns Bringing In Video Evidence To Assist Officials Could Damage Football". Heraldscotland, 2017, http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/13844882.Former_Scottish_referee_warns_bringing_in_video_evidence_to_assist_officials_could_damage_football/.

The article “former Scottish referee warns bringing in video evidence to assist officials could damage football” is written by Mathew Lindsay. In this article, author talks about a former SFA referee Calum Murray who was in the category One of Scottish league referees and also a FIFA referee. Murray warns that soccer could be adversely affected by the decision to bring in video refereeing to help officials during the game. The Scottish league has recently been marred by controversies involving high-profile referees, and there have been calls from prominent figures to introduce modern technology in soccer like many other games such as a cricket, tennis, and rugby union have done. However, Murray has argued that introducing video refereeing could slow the game to a shocking degree and therefore spoil it as a spectacle. It would be boring in some situations where the game is stopped for evaluation of a tackle because someone has shouted or an instance where the referee has given a decision to a given team and the video referee rules otherwise.

Tenorio, paul. "Time, Not Technology, Is The Answer To MLS Refereeing Woes." Orlandosentinel.Com, 2017, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-city-lions/os-mls-officials-paul-tenorio-0723-20150722-column.html.

The article “Time, not technology, is the answer to MLS refereeing woes” is from the Orlando Sintel Newspaper written by Paul Tenorio, a contact reporter. He says that it is true that the soccer game in United has been hit by several controversies involving refereeing decisions and gives one instance where an Orlando city player was wrongly red carded during a game against New York Red Bulls and as a result, the former lost by two goals to nil. He says that despite several people calling for immediate adoption of some type of instant replays to resolve decisions involving penalties and red cards, the human referee must go back to the drawing board and apply the traditional ideals which ensured the existence of justice in the game. He contends that technology is not the answer as far as solving the issues affecting the game is concerned. Paul asserts that, introduction of communication devices to help communication between assistant referee and the center referee has contributed to clouded judgment leading to increased human error. He says that the only thing referees need is a better feeling of the game and not the introduction of technology.

"Punditry Howard Webb, Ferdinand & Mcmanaman Discuss On Referee Decision Video Technology 2016". Youtube, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgjDksBiJwI.

Punditry Howard Webb, Ferdinand & McManaman Discuss on Referee Decision Video Technology 201 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgjDksBiJwI. This a punditry video between former English premier league (EPL) referee and former EPL players Rio Ferdinand and Macmanaman. Webb says that the technology refereeing should be given a chance arguing that it could help in some situations where the referee is not able to make informed decisions. However, Rio Ferdinand says that fans are used to human errors, and with technology, it could draw much debate during the match and other places after the game has ended. On the other hand, Macmanaman argues that video technology will concentrate much on penalty area and now asks what would happen if incidences occur in the other parts of the pitch. He also says that in the traditional system people are used to agreeing with decisions even if they are controversial. In the proposed system there would be a lot of arguments between the referee and players in a situation where players think the decision should go their way, but referee thinks otherwise. Players will keep on telling the referee to refer to the video and thus reconsider his decision, resulting in wastage of a lot of time. Both Ferdinand and Mcmanaman oppose this idea greatly oppose.

Articles Supporting

Colin, Barras."Innovation: Give Referee Technology A Sporting Chance". New Scientist, 2017, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17139-innovation-give-referee-technology-a-sporting-chance/.

“Innovation: Give referee technology a sporting chance” is an article written by Colin Barras where he praises technology use in many sectors of the sport such as helping athletes improve their performance in different aspects including rule-bending drugs and the 3D motion replays that help in improving coaching feedback. However, despite technology finding itself in sport, referees and umpires are never lucky because they have not been given a chance to use it. People rush to condemn them when they make mistakes despite the existence of technology that could play a vital role in some of the decisions that are considered hard to make during games. Some resistance to introducing technology refereeing in sport is not warranted. Refusing to introduce video replays technology in soccer and others games could prove suicidal to the field of sports because research has proven that referees and umpires will continue making poor judgments especially in fast-flowing games and therefore lead to the false outcome of the game. In this article, the author argues that technology refereeing should be given a chance because professionals who are against this move also use technology to improve their performance.

Dan, Farr. “Why Football Should Introduce Video Refereeing." The Huffington Post, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-farr/video-refereeing-in-football_b_5028259.html.

“Why Football Should Introduce Video Refereeing” is a title of a blog written by Dan Farr who says that despite several individuals opposed to the idea of video refereeing,, it is worth introducing it to the world of sport. Football game or any other sport must be associated with fairness, and this fairness may be abandoned in instances when players dive in the penalty box and are given a penalty, or their actions go unpunished because of the poor refereeing. According to Dan, video refereeing would eliminate controversial decisions typically given by referees because it will guarantee fast and accurate decisions. He also says that adoption of video technology is not as expensive as the ones used in other sports. This blog is great because the author gives the facts and explain thoroughly how video refereeing in football matches could help save some teams and individual players during the match.

Works cited

"Punditry Howard Webb, Ferdinand & Mcmanaman Discuss On Referee Decision Video Technology 2016". Youtube, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgjDksBiJwI.

Colin, Barras."Innovation: Give Referee Technology A Sporting Chance". New Scientist, 2017, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17139-innovation-give-referee-technology-a-sporting-chance/.

Dan, Farr. “Why Football Should Introduce Video Refereeing." The Huffington Post, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-farr/video-refereeing-in-football_b_5028259.html.

Mathew, Lindsay."Former Scottish Referee Warns Bringing In Video Evidence To Assist Officials Could Damage Football". Heraldscotland, 2017, http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/13844882.Former_Scottish_referee_warns_bringing_in_video_evidence_to_assist_officials_could_damage_football/.

Mathieu, Winand. "Video Refereeing Could Be A Major Own Goal For Football – Here's Why." The Conversation, 2017, http://theconversation.com/video-refereeing-could-be-a-major-own-goal-for-football-heres-why-66000.

Tenorio, paul. "Time, Not Technology, Is The Answer To MLS Refereeing Woes." Orlandosentinel.Com, 2017, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-city-lions/os-mls-officials-paul-tenorio-0723-20150722-column.html.