Time for Fútbol to join the club and use replay.

As we enter a new year, an old dilemma still haunts our beloved game of football. Just these past few weeks, the calls of ref bias reared its ugly head again. The big surprise though, was that it was coming from Barça fans this time. The missed calls on the obvious handball in the Espanyol game coupled with the booking to Iniesta after he was fouled inside the box in the Betis game and the missed calls in the Madrid Mallorca game upset many fans who believe the gap between the archrivals should be down to two points. I don’t think there is a bias by the refs. It’s just incompetence. I also think that the idea of instant replay has to become a reality in the near future so we don't have to witness another poor decision like Iniesta's booking against Betis this past weekend.

This debate has been going on for a while with those for and against instant replay. There was even a very lively discussion about it on twitter between me, ESPN Soccernet’s Eduardo Alvarez and the infamous Barcastuff this past weekend. The discussion went back and forth between us regarding the issues that refs are not intentionally favoring any side; past or present in recent history. Eduardo made the point that referees need to be full-time professionals and not part-timers. He made the strong point that if they remain part-timers, then the pressure on the referees will keep growing, and they will remain unprepared and amateur as they are nowadays.

Barcastuff countered that the pressure though is coming from Real Madrid, its fans and the Madrid press. I have to say I agree with that statement. One of the best examples was during last year’s Champions League Semi-Finals. Madridistas were upset with Wolfgang Stark’s decision to send off Pepe. Afterwards, ITV’s Andy Townsend was threatened by angry Madrid fans who thought he was Stark. If this is what Townsend went through, imagine what the Spanish refs go through then. It is not that farfetched for referees to feel the wrath of fans. It wasn’t that long ago that Anders Frisk retired following Mourinho’s accusations that resulted in threats made at him and his family from Chelsea fans.

Now back to Eduardo’s comment that referees should be full-time professionals. I agree and this is something that many others have said before and the NFL is currently thinking about making their referees become fulltime. I don’t think the referees are biased. They just are not that good. It seems like the game is advancing every year while they regress backwards. I don’t think referees becoming full-time professionals is enough though and that more needs to be implemented to aid the referees and provide just results.

More referees was one suggestion and perhaps it might work. However, we all agreed that instant replay/TV technology is something we all want to be implemented someday.  Of course, that topic has ruffled the feathers of the purists for a long time. I can understand their views against it. It’s not part of the game, it slows down games, and it takes away from the game. I agree with all except the latter. I am sorry but I didn’t buy Platini’s explanation that human error is part of the game. Sorry, but this sport is now a business where managers lose their jobs and players might end up losing out on success. I don’t believe Mexico’s and England’s national teams were too pleased with FIFA’s apology after their elimination from the World Cup.

The neutrals might say they prefer it that way but I would be hard pressed to believe any fan shares that view after seeing his team get the wrong end of a call. We are now in the year 2012 and NCAA Football and Basketball use instant replay. Heck, even Major League Baseball uses instant replay and that sport has been around just as long as fútbol and has its own share of purists. Yet, I never heard any of them complain about it when it has been used to get the call right. Now some argue how can we rely on instant replay when the NFL can’t seem to get calls right with the use of replay? Valid point but the NFL is a different sport where they can challenge for many things unlike football where we want it just for a few things such as off sides, hand balls, did the ball cross the goal line and foul or dive for a penalty. I prefer we compare it to NHL’s use of instant replay since the NHL and fútbol share many similarities.

NHL’s instant replay applies to only goals. There are basically eight things they can review and guess what, I can’t think of many instances where they got a goal wrong with the minor exception of the Dallas Stars Buffalo Sabres series clinching goal involving Brett Hull skate in the crease during overtime in the Finals controversy. Other than that, they have gotten it right and if I am wrong, please let me know. Now, for fútbol, it would be used for the following reasons. Did the ball cross the goal line? Was it a handball to score or deny a goal?; Was the player onside or not and was it a foul or a dive inside the box? You can also make the argument for off the ball decisions like Zidane’s head butt. I can’t believe that fans would rather see a game be decided by a blown call. Maradona’s Hand of God anyone? Instant replay is the way of the future and FIFA needs to get the ball rolling on it quickly. Every sport seems to have it now except our beloved sport. Of course, this would mean more cameras, more camera angles and even a video goal judge so the referee doesn’t have to go through the peep show booth that NFL referees go through. Let someone upstairs review it like they do in the NHL.

The problem though is that this issue has to be brought up by the players. Players whining to the media about bad calls is not enough. They have to demand it. Barcastuff made the argument that players union have other concerns such as protecting the players. I beg to differ and think the players and their unions have to make their voices heard along with the league presidents. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. Clubs and fans no longer have to witness their team suffer a bad call. Leagues and teams can make money from the TV time used during the instant replay. I don’t buy into the argument that it stalls games by affecting continuity and momentum since we go through that already from players wasting time for injuries or protesting a bad call.

Until then, we have to sit back and watch referees make horrible calls such as the missed handball in the Barcelona derby or the wrong call on the disallowed Mallorca goal for off sides or the missed Sergio Ramos handball near the end of the game.  We cannot continue to live at a time where teams could get relegated or lose its chance at winning a trophy from a bad referee’s decision. Eduardo made the point that he didn’t think the Spanish league has been decided by refereeing mistakes. I agree with him when he said that there will be tons of ref mistakes after 38 matches but ultimately, the best side always wins. He detests this sort of debate and made the obvious claim that both Real Madrid and Barcelona get way too many calls to complain about it. I concur and think that’s the case in all the leagues when it comes to big teams getting the benefit of the calls against the smaller teams.  In case you didn’t know, Eduardo is a Real Madrid fan who is very fair and level headed in my opinion.

I agreed with him about the best side always wins and that’s why I don’t blame the referees for Barça being in second place. Much of the blame lies with their away from albeit some of the referee calls have not helped either. With that said, we should not accept incompetence from non-fulltime referees that affect the outcomes of close games that could lead to teams being relegated or hindering teams from winning a title when there is video technology available. So I hope that the push for video technology grows stronger. Please make it happen FIFA!