After having listened for two weeks to Moderators bashing soccer on radio and having several discussions with people about the pros and cons of soccer over other sports, I have noticed that there are two complaints about soccer that I have no response to.
One is diving, which as cheating goes is common to every sport in one way or another.
The other is the stupid pretending you're hurt when you are not.
I have very little respect for Baseball players as athletes, but I have never seen one stretchered off the field.
Well, add one more complaint about soccer I don't have a response to.
Refereeing.
The non-call against England was the single worst call I have ever seen.
But it also illustrates several problems Fifa is facing.
First: Why not have TV replay.
Fifa says TV replay would undermine the authority of the referee on the field, it would disrupt the flow of the game and it would be impossible to implement world wide.
I think the authority and the implementation arguments are bogus for obvious reasons. However, the England non-goal showed another problem with video review. Neuer, immediately, took the ball threw it for 50 yards and Germany was on a fast break. Should the ref have stopped the game for a video review and denied Germany's fastbreak. And the England case was obvious, but how about more ambigous plays? Would this eventually lead to several stops a game for video reviews as Fifa claims?
I think it probably would.
My solution.
The fifth referee the way they were used in the Europa League.
I don't really blame the referees for missing the goal, even though they were probably the only two people in the stadium. But the ref was probably looking at the contact he was expecting on several players converging on the ball and the linesman is actually in a very bad position to make a goalline call. So, I don't blame the referees, but they need help. A 5th official would never have missed the goal standing right next to the goal and directly looking into the goal. He could have immediately told the referee and the right call would have been made.
Now, whether or not five referees is realistic for all professional Fifa games worldwide should be irrelevant. The World Cup is the games showcase to the world and special should apply if that helps making the game better. As of now, there is just one more stupid baseball fan laughing at us soccer idiots and Sepp Blatter has left us soccer fans hung out to dry.
@rainer533: The notion of "world wide implementation" is quaint and does appeal to my (naive, misguided) sense of egalitarianism. However, I have to agree with you that the World Cup Finals (at least) are "special". Perhaps, there is nothing wrong with *doing more* at these *special events* to prevent errors. We can, I think, reasonably argue that there already are conditions that can not reasonably be replicated at every level of the game. The most glaring example, pun intended, is the use of floodlights. So, yes, I agree that for something as important as the World Cup Finals, dedicated goal-line judges make good sense.
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