What happened to England? And how could a goal in a World Cup final be disallowed by a referee?

Yesterday England crashed out of the World Cup after Germany beat them 4-1. Germany initially dominated the game, scoring two goals which simply made a mockery of the English defence. But England fought back with an excellent goal from Matthew Upson in the 37th minute. This was quickly followed by an excellent goal from Lampard that meant England equalized just before half-time. England were suddenly on top and looking strong. The tables had turned and Germany’s young defence was suddenly a walk over.

But that goal was disallowed. Even though it was seen by half the crowd in the stadium, most the players on the pitch and about 500 million people watching on television the referee in his wisdom disallowed it, because he was not looking. Even when it was shown on the giant screens in the stadium the referee still could not see the ball clearly cross the line and land about 1 metre from the goal line before spinning back out into the goal keepers arms.

Some people are saying that England were playing badly so that it does not really matter. Yes, England were playing badly for the first 30 minutes, and yes, they played badly after the ref disallowed their goal – the team lost all hope and faith and just fell apart. But in those last 15 minutes of the first half, England were playing brilliantly and were on top. If that goal was allowed they would have had the strength and determination to carry on and win the game. But a blind ref put a stop on that.

FIFA stand by their decision not to have any “technology” in the game to help the referees. This is a stupid and out dated idea. Many sports have the aid of video to ensure that a correct and fair decision is made. Cricket, tennis, rugby all use cameras. Fencing and taekwondo now use electronic tagging. All athletics has advanced video that can determine differences over microseconds. So why cannot football? Is there not enough money in the game?

Anyone who says that stoppages for a referee to watch a video playback would spoil the game are missing the point. The thing that spoils the game most is unfair decisions and mistakes by the referee. What was a great game has suddenly become a joke.