Modern day sport is big business. If you don’t accept that, your head is in the sand. The amateur sportsman is long gone and the professional approach will be with us until the end of time.
There are two schools of thought in regards to the use of video referrals to aid in making on-the-field decisions in professional sport. Some think all decisions should be left to the on-field officials and then there are those of us who think video referees or umpires should definitely be used, albeit refined in some cases.
The first thing that everyone must understand is that video help is never going to eliminate all bad decisions. The reason video referrals exist in the first place is because the decisions the officials are faced with are not always black and white. The aim should always be to make more right decisions than wrong ones and for the most part that’s what is happening across most sports.
We saw one of the worst decisions ever in a gridiron game last year when Green Bay was robbed of a win on the final play – and this in a sport that pioneered video referrals! Anomalies happen and as long as problems are addressed things will continue to improve and these incidents will become increasingly rare. Technology will continue to move forward and governing bodies need to move with the times to make their referrals quicker and more accurate.
Football (soccer) continues to stand against the use of video referrals but mark my words – one day when a World Cup is decided by a bad call the public outcry will change this for the better. FIFA is wrong on this one and are only delaying the inevitable.
Some sports do this well and others do it poorly. There is a lot more to say on this topic and I will be writing a review of video referrals across a wide range of sports in WGM in the future, so stay tuned. Have a think about where you stand and I will be interested in our readers’ thoughts in the months to come.
