‘Have we lost sight of what we really do care about?’

WARNING. The pursuit of perfection can lead to unexpected and unwanted consequences. Some years ago, in another part of my life, I spent a hugely enjoyable week in New York. I had been commissioned to explore the archives of the Metropolitan Opera. I was charged with identifying those productions most likely to have universal appeal.

The men who sent me across the Atlantic would then seek to acquire the rights to market them worldwide.

They would not be cheap but packaged in a glossy box with the hallmark of the Met, the profits would accrue in time.

The vaults held a treasure trove of operatic history.

All the great singers had performed there, from Martinelli to Pinza to Domingo.

The choice would surely be challenging. So when Friday night came and I climbed aboard my flight back to the UK, where I had the other side of my life, as a football commentator for Southern Television.

How many gold star recommendations were in my report? The answer is not a single one.

Time after time a great occasion would be marred by a small glitch, insignificant at the time but potentially irritating when viewed at home more than once.

I had asked the head of the archives why they had not corrected the flaws. It could have been cured, I suggested, with just a little editing.

My opposite number smiled patiently and replied, “Gerald, there is no such thing as a little editing”. In other words, what mattered was the big picture not the occasional pinprick.

Bear with me, sports followers, I promise you I know where this is leading. The similarity between high culture and sport is not exact, but it is close enough.

Our sport on television today is covered live, as it happens.

There is neither time nor need to correct any occasional slips by the director or his camera team. What matters is the big picture.

Unfortunately, we have developed in our quest for perfection a kind of editing immediately after the event. We are, of course, back in the territory of our old antagonist, the Video Assistant Referee.

We are now into the business of editing those minor flaws, the human errors so easily made by the referee and his officials on the pitch.

But have we lost sight of what we really care about? We want a game played on a level field to determine which of the two is better. But do we really believe that this is an issue that can be decided by a few inches? Do we really want a sublime move involving several individuals to be ruled out because a knee or an elbow has strayed across some line invisible to us all at the time?

Somewhere along the way, seduced by technology and what it can do for us, we have come to prefer perfection to what the vast majority of open minded spectators would surely endorse, simple justice. Once upon a time we all acknowledged a simple belief - that the referee’s decision was final.

Too late to turn back the clock to those days but some of us will find it hard to conceal ambivalent reactions.

It has come down to perceived justice and proven perfection.