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Updated Monday, July 5, 2010 11:01 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Can technology make the beautiful game better?

This makes FIFA's gamble with soccer's credibility all the more inexplicable. In this high-tech age where other sports have already made the transition in adopting technologies to assist referees, the International Board should be leading the way not lagging behind.

According to the New York-based Nielsen Company, which recently surveyed 27,000 people in 55 countries on questions related to the World Cup, about two-thirds thought that video replays should be used to avert refereeing blunders like those that have marred the two recent games.

Sixty-five percent of them also would back the use of video replays during major competitions. Only about one in ten respondents argued that the ban should stay, while the rest were undecided, the research company said in a statement.

But if the refs need help, could video replays and goal-line technology, which are already used in other major sports such as basketball, American football and cricket, really improve officiating? Should technology take over more and more refereeing decisions in goal-scoring situations despite the risk of slowing down the games?

Lousy calls already plague the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) despite the network of cameras that people at the U.S.'s Homeland Security would kill for. Even if the right camera angle is available, the referee will still have to navigate an increasingly complicated rulebook to get it right.

During the 1998 World Cup, just minutes before the final whistle of Norway-Brazil, Norwegian striker Tore Andre Flo was pulled down in the penalty area. The controversial penalty kick, signaled by the American referee, was strongly decried by international media based on multiple video replays that raised doubts of foul play. The controversy ended two days later after pictures published on-line from a Swedish TV crew eventually showed the Brazilian taking Flo down inside the penalty area, pulling on his jersey.

The argument, for now, is that technology is a road FIFA should go down, but very carefully. Video replays and goal-line technology are not necessarily a boon because as long as humans make the first or the last call, no matter how many reviews are packed in between, mistakes are inevitable.

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