Gordon Smith says he will again put forward proposals for video replays in football to the International Football Association Board when it meets in March 2010. The Scottish FA chief executive failed to convince board members – including world governing body Fifa – to introduce technology for contentious decisions at their last meeting.
Discussion over whether match officials should be able to consult video replays has come to the fore yet again after France’s controversial winner in their 2010 World Cup play-off match with Ireland. Forward Thierry Henry twice controlled the ball with his hand before crossing for Arsenal defender William Gallas to score the decisive goal in a 2-1 aggregate win in Paris, sending his team to the tournament in South Africa.
Smith says he will propose a similar system to that seen in tennis, where players can challenge refereeing decisions they disagree with. The former player and pundit, who took over the SFA top job in June 2007, wants managers to be able to ask for an immediate review of calls made by the referee.
"I would put forward a system where two challenges are allowed per game per technical area,” he explained. "I don't think referees will be undermined. It will mean we get the right decision in matches.”
Smith cited the plight of the Irish, who failed to qualify for the World Cup because referee Martin Hansson and his assistant didn’t spot Henry’s infringement. Ireland’s goalkeeper Shay Given and his team mates surrounded the match officials for minutes after the goal protesting – time in which Smith says video footage could have been studied to confirm the goal shouldn’t have stood.
"If the Irish had called for TV pictures - and the game had stopped anyway - the goal would have been disallowed and they could be going to the World Cup next summer instead of France,” Smith said.
"That's how vital it is to get these decisions right."
Fifa will have four votes on the matter at the meeting of the IFAB in March. The Scottish, English, Welsh and Northern Irish FAs all have one vote each. Smith is expected to raise his proposals at the end of the meeting under ‘any other business’.
Whilst the issue of the controversy caused by Henry’s actions will definitely be mentioned, it is expected Fifa will use the incident as leverage to push through Uefa president Michel Platini’s idea of having an additional assistant referee beside each goal.
The system has been trialled in Europa League matches this season and – given that a fifth or sixth official could have been ideally placed to chalk off Henry’s goal in Paris – it is thought Fifa will attempt to pass a motion for the system to be used at the 2010 World Cup.
Last updated: 27 November 2009, 07:24
The links provided allow you to bookmark this page into your favourite social media website. For users with JavaScript disabled copy and paste the URL from the address bar into your chosen social bookmarking site.