Comments on: Poll: Bodies, Technology or Leave It Be?

By: Shazback

Shazback — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:35:15 +0000

I would actually like to see people apply the supposed holy grail of perfection that is the instant replay. In France, the cahiers du football (www.cahiersdufoot.net) regularly show that the french TVs are wrong because they don’t know the offside rule. They place the offside “line” (revelateur) where they want to (at the feet of the defenders, or at the attackers’ hands, depending on if they want to show the player was offside or not), and quite often manage to call offsides when the ball has already left the player’s foot. What’s more, in the french Coupe de la Ligue Final last year there was an injury time call that can, sadly, not be resolved at all by instant replay. Was it a foul, a mere touch, or a dive? ask five people and you’ll get all three answers, as well as ridiculous “you can’t give a penalty in injury time” (why not? do some rules not apply in injury time?). The ref gave a penalty (that went on to win the match), whilst the commentators were claiming it shouldn’t have been a penalty, dismissing the fact that even just slight contact at full speed -will- knock a player down.

Video and technology is far from being the holy grail it is touted as being. And given a 50-50 call on the edge of the box, I’d prefer the referee to choose in a split second rather than have a video that doesn’t show anything and have a far more debatable (and far more likely biased) call given with it.

By: mele419

mele419 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:22:06 +0000

Video.
More men just adds the possibilty of more human error.

By: OhYes

OhYes — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:01:47 +0000

Don’t care. First of all, players are less likely to do it if they know that the entire team will be fined. Secondly, is that the only player that benefits from the dive? No. If the ref calls a penalty, the TEAM has the opportunity to score a goal. If the dive results in a free kick, the TEAM has the opportunity to score a goal from it. Finally, the manager should have control over his players. When a player dives, it shows disrespect to the sport, to the refs, to the organizer (FIFA, UEFA etc) and to the supporters of either team. It’s a slap in the face and it should NEVER be justified OR condoned. Ever.

By: PocketKings

PocketKings — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:28:14 +0000

You can’t fine a whole team for an individual taking a dive?!? Players make decisions to dive because they want a better contract, because they are trying to reach some bonus milestone, or because they are trying to draw a foul (like in Basketball).

Fine the player, not the team, and not the club.

By: OhYes

OhYes — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:45:10 +0000

I really don’t care either way. I think it’s the kind of thing that evens itself out over time. Sometimes it benefits you, sometimes it happens against your team. It goes both ways.

I think they should get even stricter with the diving. They should place extra cameras on the field to catch those dirty divers. Fine the whole team after someone is caught diving. That’s the crap I’m getting tired of seeing.