Play It Again, Ref

In the wake of this mornings (last night for most of you) World Cup Qualifying Play-Off between France and Ireland I feel that I need to mention something I have felt strongly about for a while now, probably since the last World Cup (no, I swear I’m not bitter. Really, I’m not! Damn Italy…). The time has come to implement video replays in football. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a clip. Skip to the second half of it to see what I mean.

The replays show that there is a clear handball by Thierry Henry to keep the ball in play before he kicks it to Gallas to score. And thats assuming there was no offside. A video replay would give the referee two options. Either a free kick to Ireland for the offside (Henry was onside, but the offside player could be adjudged to have blocked the defender from getting to the ball) or a yellow card for Henry and a free kick/goal kick to Ireland. Play continues.

This game was the most important side for these two countries for the last four years. Probably even longer, especially for Ireland. If play continued and Ireland lost legitimately, fair play to France. As it stands, the Irish team have been cheated and many of them will never get another chance to qualify for a World Cup.

Football purists will argue that it takes too long and will interrupt the flow of the game. And perhaps it will. But it’s not like situations such as this happen each and every game. But every ten to twenty games you get situations such as this, an offside goal or a ball cleared after it has already crossed the line. The system has already been implemented in rugby, and they have shown that it doesn’t take very long at all to make a decision. And in rugby, the decisions aren’t always as clear cut as this.

Other people will argue that this is football and shit happens. Yeah? Try telling that to the Irish players. The time has come for football to mature as a game and implement video replays.

The Off Season, Transfers and Jenson Button

So, the season is over, everyone can go home, relax, have a nice quiet drink and forget about sport for a while. Right? I think not. There are times when I find the off-season to be more interesting than the regular season itself, especially when it comes to football. I mean, the season goes for 7-9 months in most cases, and its very easy to lose track of it and miss a couple of matches, particularly when you are trying to follow the European leagues from here in Australia and the matches are on in the middle of the night. But come the off-season, I’m checking the news websites every morning to see who has said what, who has gone where and whether Ronaldo has finally signed for Real Madrid yet. I know that I was not the only one that was getting very bored of all that over the last two summers. And that’s the beauty of the internet. That we can access all that information so easily from anywhere in the world. But why am I talking about this? We are only halfway through the current season and the talk is not about who is moving where (well, mostly) but of whether Arsenal can win the Premier League, if Valencia can clear their debt without losing their best players, of whether Sydney will be able to continue their good form after the international break and of whether England have any strength in depth at all.

No, what I’m really here to talk about is a different off-season. One that is generally much quieter than that of the World Game. But not this year. With only 20-something sportsmen competing in Formula One each season, less than in each single football team, the potential for transfers and speculation is infinitely less than the football world. But this year they have managed to create stories that rival the Ronaldo transfer saga for size and the main one today was the news that world-champion Jenson Button left Brawn Mercedes GP to join fellow Brit and fellow world-champion Lewis Hamilton at F1 giants McLaren. Now there have been some big moves this year already with Fernando Alonso moving to Ferrari and veteran Rubens Barrichello moving to veteran team Williams but Button’s move to McLaren is undoubtedly going to be the most talked about.

But has Jenson Button made the right move? I don’t think so. Firstly there are the comparisons between Button’s move to McLaren and Alonso’s after he won his second World Championship with Renault a couple of years ago. Alonso found Hamilton hard to work with and now, with Hamilton a clear number one driver at McLaren, Button may find himself playing second fiddle to Hamilton, something he may not be so keen on doing after his season at Brawn. But I think most importantly Button has thrown away a chance to win back-to-back World Championships. There is no reason to suggest that Mercedes and Ross Brawn won’t make a car capable of winning the Championship and whilst McLaren are almost certain to be competitive next year, there is no reason to suggest that Button is a better driver than Hamilton or will be able to get the better of Hamilton over the course of the season. So, whilst next season may see four teams competing for the Championship in Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, I don’t think Button will be one of the drivers competing for the title. Massa? Yes. Hamilton? Yes. Alonso? Yes. Vettel? Yes. Rosberg? Potentially. Webber? Potentially. Button? No.