Is Video the Future, or Are We Going to Live In the Old Fashioned Past?

The wrist watch worn by match officials to aid them with goal decisions

Goal line technology was introduced at all English Premier League grounds at the start of the 2013/2014 season. The technology proved to be a great help to referees, as with the watches and cameras nearly 99.9% of the decisions are right.

To put it simple, cameras are situated around the ground, in the goal, etc. Then if the hawk-eye system installed on the cameras decides that the whole of the ball has crossed the whole of the line, then it simply buzzes and flashes on the officials watches, signalling that it was a goal. This happens in a matter of seconds, and requires no stoppage for technical queries.

However, is it about time that referees are also aided by a 'video ref'? There are endless ways that this could work, even if each team had only 1/2 appeals per game.

If you go around the grounds on England nowadays, all you will hear is moaning about the officials. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, the moans and groans are correct. The refs are not robots, they will not get every decision right!

By simply adding a video referee, teams and angry managers could no longer complain about the decision. In some cases, one bad decision can cause an under pressure manager there job.

The new, and highly successful piece of equipment, vanishing spray

Next to be installed in the footballing world was the simple, but effective, vanishing spray, thus ensuring the wall or set piece taker does not encroach on the position the decision was awarded at. This so far has proved to be highly successful in the English top flight.

Although, the main point of this article is; if we carry on as we are doing, football will turn into a outdated, old sport. The sport itself needs to keep up with other sports, such as rugby and cricket where video referees are frequently asked to give a hand.

So what if there's two more additional minutes at the end of a ninety-four minute encounter, no one would be bothered. Everyone would get there moneys worth, and also, everyone would go home not complaining about that one dodgy decision that cost their team the game.

This is most definitely a thing that has to be looked into in the future.