HawkEye is a computer system, a tracking system that is already being used in tennis and cricket to determine where exactly the ball had landed or touched in slow motion. If you watch tennis, you'd know what I'm talking about. It was developed by the Roke Manor Research team in Hampshire, UK back in 2001.
So, there are reasons a plenty as to why we need a HawkEye in this beautiful game. But here is what would happen with a HawkEye.
First of all, it is very important as to how will the HawkEye be used in football. Whether it will used as a major refereeing tool or just to contest dubious decisions remains a big question.
Firstly, we know too well that players like to wave and protest at every vital decision the referee makes. In this case, will the referee alone be enough to determine which decisions deserve a HawkEye replay? Say the referee and linesman all ignored calls by players to have a HawkEye and it turned to be a costaly ignorance when television replays come up moments later, referees will come under the firing line yet again, won't they? So lets consider having a full-fledge HawkEye and the ability to challenge a call at anytime during a 90-minute game, how will that pan out?
Imagine:
Commentator 1: On to Luis Garcia...good first touch....Luis Garcia......!! Off the line!!! The Liverpool players want a goal!...
Commentator 2: Its given! The referee has give the goal John! Unbelieavable! It looked to me like Kalou got it off the line there!
Commentator 1: Oh, wait, now, John Terry is going to challange that decision!
(So the players stop playing and keep their eyes on the boards where a HawkEye is called for).
HawkEye shows the ball crossing one inch past the line...through a shadow description it appears there on the screen, IN. Liverpool players celebrate and Chelsea players look disgusted by that margin. Play has stopped for more than two minutes.
Imagine if the same thing happens for every offside decision, every decision about a push inside the penalty area, every tackle that deserves a card, or every dive! Play halts for two or three minutes, and what we get is a break to watch at a screen at the far end of the stadium to numerically tell us whats in and whats not, whats good and whats bad. Hello, this is football, or soccer, whatever way you call it!
(Look at the illustration here of example of a HawkEye, practically, that ball is out but because of one inch's length, its is being deemed IN as the official review, imagine the frustration the players must be feeling...there are also questions about how exactly accurate HawkEye actually is)
In tennis its okay because te players will have to steady themsleves at opposite end of the court before serving, so such a break hardly affects the match or its rhythm. In cricket, players take up their stations and one bowls while one bats. Again, a delay in decision-making can be tolerated. The game will break in order for players to station themselves back in the end of every game, which is about few minutes long. But football?? A 45-minute constantly flowing game, imagine how much the rhythm would be affected if we were to watch decisions being replayed and analysed while players wait to take throw ins or freekicks. Football is all about adrenalin, the constant virtues, if decisions are replayed and challenged time and again, probably counter-attacks would never exist in football. We will spend an extra 30 minutes contesting decisions, the player's rhythm will break at regular intervals, which is a real disadvantage if a particular team is attacking incessantly. It would be pathetic to watch. Unless there is a system that would allow referees to get instant feed on a decision that needs to be made, football should remain the same as it is. Dubious decisions are not good, but they are part of the game. Definitely HawkEye isn't a solution for refereeing problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment