Goal-line technology coming next season

Looks like the referees will have to find some other way of rigging all the results now. Just need the video fourth official referral now for all the dodgy penalty call and we might actually have a level playing field for once.

Goal line technology might sort out about half a dozen controversies a season. But what we really need is less Sky Four (or three?) bias from referees, a bit more consistency from them and for them to take some concerted action regarding the 'handbags out' wrestling in penalty areas for set pieces.

Then I might have a little more confidence.

Amen Dave, this would have made the difference to one match for us this season, so it's not exactly world changing.

Tony, those 2 points we lost could be the difference in getting in Europe or not.

I believe this is where it should stop. No third eye for penalty calls or fouls.

One man's foul is another man's good tackle. You can see the difference when you read the live forum. 10 of us shout for a penalty, 6 say it never is.

Imagine getting Brian Eating as the fourth official. We'd never get anything. ;0)

That should read Brian Waring.

Fuckin predictive text.

I seem to find myself a sole dissenting voice on goal line technology. I hate the idea.

We have referees and linesmen to make the calls. They do their best and are usually accurate but obviously human error can occur. But isn't that what football's about? Refereeing in itself is an art and I don't want it tainted. As Dave says, sort out the bias and the wrestling and the diving, GLT is trivial by comparison.

So what after GLT? It won't stop there. In fact it's almost daft to stop there. What about offsides. Must be 5 or 6 close calls per game - do they get reviewed? Penalty shouts? Diving? Jostling at corners?

I know why don't we get rid of refs and just let a big screen in the corner bark out commands to the players.

And players must only run and kick in straight lines. In fact do away with the players. Robots could play instead. Lets get things so finely tuned so that any possible talking point can be removed from the beautiful game. Yeah, that'll be perfect.

I half agree with you Phil a bit like the way the art of umpiring in cricket is being taken away by the DRS. the difference is that in other sports you get the impression that officials really are tyring to do their best and that the evry few errors they do make (amazing how tennis line judges get so many right at that speed) are usually honest ones. In football I've had the impression over the years that certain referees have manipulated the rules to suit their own liking and big teams in certain games. This can be anything from not giving one 50-50 pen to one team but giving it to another, on the face of it it is all within the laws of the game but everyone knows its unfair.Take the Reading game this weekend, in the last fixture we had 2 very clear shouts for a pen turned down. Reading then got awarded an even softer pen to win them the game. The ref is not in contempt of the rules but I felt cheated. At the other end of the scale you get the Clattenburg derby where a ref favoruing one team so much completely disregards the rules to get the result he wants. If GLT cuts out even the slightest bit of this then I'm in favour of it. Had techn9logy been around earlier we may never have been Collina-ed against Villareal.

A very small step in embracing technology, but not far enough in my opinion.

James Martin mentioned DRS which is used to assist umpires in cricket yet India are the only nation that wont have DRS used in their games. So how ironic that in their last test series against England several decisions went against India, but if they had used DRS the system would have overturned those decisions.

Yes goal line technology should have been implemented years ago, but we need to use the technology that's there to make sure we get the right result and if refs and umpires in other sport welcome the help they get from technology I can't see why the refs in football wouldn't embrace the changes. Some fans are concerned about were do you draw the line with technology well the answer is: you don't draw a line — you embrace it.

The other argument is that it would take to long to review all the decisions, but if we only reviewed goals that looked questionable then very little time would be taken. In fact by the time the goalscorer had ran into the crowd run to the corner flag for a bit of shadow boxing then the decision would be confirmed by the fourth official before the goalscorer got back for the re-start.

All this technology should do is to advise the referee that the ball has crossed the goal-line. That means he can stop play as the ball has left the field of play & he can award a goal or awars a free-kick for an infringement of the games laws, just the same as now. All that should change is that the referee won't wave play on, thinking the ball hasn't crossed the line & is still in play & no offence has been committed.

This technology shouldn't be at all intrusive as it only needs to do something when the ball is no longer on the field of play anyway, ie- a deadball situation. However, most other suggestions seem to involve use of video technology which would be intrusive as the incidents under review would potentially occur during a passage of play that could inturn lead to other contentious incidents. At which point is the game to be stopped for video review & how far back is play taken to determine whether an offence has been committed? Football involves the human element of officials of greater or lesser ability making great decisions & terrible mistakes - frustrating, but all part of the game.

If we are to use video for review, I'd prefer to see video evidence used after matches to clamp down on cynical foul play & cheating. Accompanied by suitably draconian punishments, I'm sure it's be possible to drive out a lot of the worst gamesmanship from players behaviour.

They have a headset now, they must only get the shipping forcast on it, who DO the listen / speak to??...and to what benefit.

GLT all well and good, but the biggest problem in the game is in the line outs, sorry corners.

I used to be football crazy and would watch all sorts, but now I only watch the Blues. Does this argie bargie bearhug rubbish go on in other leagues / comps or is it a PL thing

Do English teams try it on in the CL and Europa?