Replays in Footie?

Technology and sports seem to be working hand in hand more and more nowadays and it seems as if soccer might jump on board with that as well.
For those who did not see the incident: Theirry Henry passed the ball to himself with his hand and scored a goal to eliminate Ireland from World Cup contention and giving France a very controversial 1-1 draw; allowing them to advance to the World Cup with a 2-1 victory on aggregate.

Do we welcome replays into soccer? Replays are now in cricket, football, baseball, hockey, in certain areas for boxing and tennis as well. Why not soccer? Another spin on this; is it really replays that are the issues, or the linesman and referees? Now I’m not saying the referees are always at fault, because it’s impossible to be able to see everything all the time. They are after all human. Just something to think about. Referees seemed to have more credibility before, but perhaps that is because there was no evidence to prove them wrong.

But with replays in soccer, how many issues would be solved? How can FIFA structure it? It’s easy to think about the many incidents in sports that could have been solved because of instant replays. Imagine football without the ability to challenge calls, or hockey without the ability to review goals and basketball without reviewing to see if a shot hit before the buzzer.

It doesn’t seem like soccer has had as many issues as other sports when it comes to replays and close calls, but it obviously does exist. But maybe it’s time that soccer added technology into their game. Perhaps a limited number of challenges a game the way tennis has incorporated it, but this may slow down the fast pace of footie. Soccer generally has very few stoppages and is a touch and go game with the clock never stopping. But as technology evolves, so does sports with those technologies. A replay referee may now be needed.

I’m sure many Irish fans will be agreeing with me on this one.