Comments on: It’s one set of rules for Blatter, and another for everyone else

By: walter

walter — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:51:37 +0000

The votes in Ifab are divided in to 4 votes to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and 4 votes for Fifa.

As I can imagine how things work in those backroom meetings some benefits will have been given to some of the members. Let’s say a nice financial compensation for some country’s that have missed the WC by some decision or so….

By: pieceofgosa

pieceofgosa — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:43:04 +0000

Phil, proportional based on what? Number of teams? Average attendance? Turnover? Co-efficients? Think about it mate. Every FA has to get an equal say or there really is no point to the whole thing & you’d be as well just letting the English, Spanish & Italian FA’s run the world game. Which I suspect after a few years would lead to a 3 team world cup.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:04:05 +0000

Willy, more of a concern is that those federations have an equal say! The Welsh and Irish leagues are tiny, and the SPL is a shadow of the Premier League. The very fact they have equal voting rights (not even proportional!) is madness

By: WillyG

WillyG — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:34:16 +0000

Don’t just blame FIFA. The Irish and Welsh representatives in IFAB also rejected the rule change. Yep, the same Irish who felt hard done by the Henry goal.

By: Onowu top gunner

Onowu top gunner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:57:06 +0000

Any person voting against the use of technology in football is a COMPLETE CHEAT who is afraid that the avenue at which they FIX MATCHES is about to come to an end. They can not give a genuine reason why the beautiful game which clubs & national associations spend a whole lot of money and resources to execute can not be upgraded to the level at which the world is operating today. Tell me if u are from rep. Of ireland how u will feel after ur country hav spent millions of euros only to be kicked out of the world cup because fifa wanted to see the french team at the world cup. Tell me how mr blatter would hav felt if it was to be his own swiss team that got kicked out because of selfish interest. Lets call a spade a spade. Onowu top gunner

By: Onowu top gunner

Onowu top gunner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:55:37 +0000

By: cescophreniac

cescophreniac — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:05:34 +0000

Frankly I don’t really care whether they do it of not. I mean I know it does tick fans off when it happens but how many times has it happened this season? Games are affected more frequently by wrong penalty and sending off decisions than they are by “did it or did it not cross the line” moments. Yes when it happens in a high profile game especially if it’s my team I WILL feel that it needs to be looked at in the heat of the moment but it will be a lot of hooplah that solves a very very minor problem in the game.
So why do FIFA keep bringing it up when they know they are just going to shut it down? Well, if we were not discussing this, we would be asking why they are not seriously and immediately taking action to punish the clubs that have been spending insanely and ruining the market for everybody rather than UEFA agreeing to extend the deadline even further.
Three years from now when the new deadline is getting near and Real, City, KGB fulham et al are still spending $300m to try to buy Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, there will be another meeting in Zurich and they will again reject goal line tech and say those poor third world countries can’t play football if we do it.

By: LRV

LRV — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:30:23 +0000

Sepp is a blaster, who does not often understand himself half the time. If any country’s league decide to introduce goal-line technology, can Blatter or any of his coteries really stop them? I doubt it.

By: Rhys Jaggar

Rhys Jaggar — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:01:11 +0000

Is there seriously a possibility that a club who finished 5th because goal-line technology was used to correctly award a goal to a team who, as a result, finished 4th ahead of them, would sue UEFA/FIFA for loss of ECL income if the technology was not adopted throughout Europe??

I find it unlikely.

So long as all clubs in a League agreed to use the technology for the whole season, appointed technology partners and arbiters and monitored it all correctly, why would the League rules be unfair??

I can’t see Platini stopping the EPL introducing it by banning English clubs from Europe – he just wouldn’t do it. And if Blatter banned the ECL winners from England from playing in the World Club Championship?? Well, his credibility would be down the drain, wouldn’t it??

I think EPL should just get on with it. Next season. And recommend La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga to do likewise.

By: Phil Gregory

Phil Gregory — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:50:36 +0000

As I see it (and coincidentally, touched on briefly in an article I’ve just sent to Tony!) the issue lies in the fact that not all federations are capable of introducing the technology. Naturally, all federations can afford to alter pitch dimension, but they can’t all pay for cutting edge goalline technology.

Though Blatter does himself no favours, as you point out Walter in saying something completely untrue!

By: c.u.r.s.e

c.u.r.s.e — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:59:41 +0000

do we need any more proof that puppets get the best jobs.

By: rusty

rusty — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:08:08 +0000

As an American Arsenal fan, I thought it might be enlightening to bring you a related story from our shores. Baseball, the most hidebound and traditionalist of American sports, is generally on par with association football in terms of Decisions of the Umpire are Final and Subject to Human Error, which is Part of the Game. The league is so tied to this view that they refused to allow high-resolution digital cameras to film from the angles most conducive to second-guessing those calls.

That said, last season, baseball instituted a video replay usable only to review whether a ball hit into the stands was a home run or not. It has not led to umpires being replaced by computers. It has not prevented fans from arguing about controversial calls (nor would goal-line technology have prevented the outrage perpetrated on Fiorentina in Munich). But it has taken away one uncommon but particularly egregious kind of error.