You wait 100 days and then a shambolic miscarriage of justice after 41 minutes leaves my blood boiling still
GHOST goals were supposed to become extinct with the advent of Hawk-eye and VAR.
So how on earth does a goalkeeper fall into the net, carrying the ball, in front of a worldwide TV audience and it’s not a goal?
My blood is still boiling from the shambles of Sheffield United’s goal-that-wasn’t on Wednesday.
You wait 100 days for football to return and after just 41 minutes witness a miscarriage of justice which was as bad as anything before goal-line technology.
If Aston Villa stay up by a point, or Sheffield United miss out on Champions League football next season by the same margin, I wonder if we will have heard the last of this.
Hawk-eye apologised to the Premier League and the Blades, admitting their technology had failed as it did not send a signal to referee Michael Oliver’s smartwatch or earpiece indicating Oliver Norwood’s free-kick had been carried well over the line by keeper Orjan Nyland.
“This level of occlusion has never been seen before in 9,000 matches that the system has been in operation,” they said.
Thanks for the apology – but what’s an occlusion? I had to look it up.
What I do know, and what we all knew at the moment it happened, is Sheffield United were robbed.
And it could have huge consequences at both ends of the table.
For ghost goal nonsense, it’s right up there with Manchester United keeper Roy Carroll dropping
Tottenham midfielder Pedro Mendes’s long-range hit about two yards over his line and getting away with it.
That was 15 years ago – why are matters of fact, like a ball crossing the line, even a matter of debate any more?
As Blades manager Chris Wilder observed, if his team can be denied a goal at Spurs last season because John Lundstram’s big toenail is offside, it’s nonsense that all the cameras, officials and technology can’t spot a ball well over the line.
I thought Wilder did well to keep a straight face when he said Nyland was so far over the line he was virtually in the
Holte End. Apportioning blame now is not going to make a difference to the outcome, but instead of hiding behind the technology, officials have to take responsibility.
Referee Oliver, who is one of our best officials, indicated to players that he couldn’t award a goal because his watch hadn’t buzzed.
OK, but how about using the evidence of your own eyes? All the Sheffield United players in the six-yard box appealed for a goal, some of the Villa players’ body language was sheepish at best, so that should ring alarm bells.
What was the assistant referee looking at? He would have been smack in line with it. And why didn’t VAR official Paul Tierney intervene? He had a 23-second window, before the ball went out of play again, to let Oliver know the incident needed reviewing.
Put yourself in Tierney’s shoes for a minute and you would have to accept it’s a brave man who awards a goal against the say-so of all the technology. He would have been the first official to overrule Hawk-eye and award a goal.
But what’s most important is to get these decisions right, however we arrive at them. Everyone would have applauded him for stepping in and making a brave call.
The evidence was there: There were camera angles which showed the whole ball had crossed the line.
We’re not talking about something subjective, like drawing an offside line and looking for a toe which has strayed the wrong side of it. This was a straightforward matter of fact.
An apology from Hawk-eye doesn’t rectify anything.
Goal-line technology is supposed to clear up matters of fact: Did the ball cross the line or not? Yes or No? It should be simple, not creating new layers of controversy.
Surely the VAR has to intervene if he sees what everyone watching at home can see. If the hi-tech system fails we still need referees and officials to have the courage of their convictions.
You wait 100 days for football to return – and then it takes just 41 minutes to set it back years. But you know what? Football’s back – and don’t we just love it!
I thought Wilder did well to keep a straight face when he said Nyland was so far over the line he was virtually in the Holte End