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Published on October 27, 2007

Football may be the world's most popular sport, but the latest evidence confirms that rugby is a fairer game by a country mile. Of course, there were fouls, players attempting to outsmart referees and controversial decisions at the just-ended Rugby World Cup in France. But if one of the two sports is to be picked as a real "man's game", rugby would win a lot of the neutrals' votes. To cement its position as a "fairer" game, video refereeing was featured in the tournament, something that Fifa, world soccer's governing body, has balked at because of pure narrow-mindedness.

Out-of-touch, anti-technology advocates at Fifa may even be laughing at the big controversy that marred the Rugby World Cup final. An Australian video referee made a bombshell decision in the showdown contest by ruling out an apparent England try, thus denying the team a crucial chance to close the gap on South Africa, who went on to claim the cup. Fifa may jump at the opportunity to discredit the use of video technology by saying the referee's decision was challenged all over the world, and that it took too long for him to make a ruling, which disrupted the flow of the game.

But in fact the joke is always on Fifa. When it comes to using the help of technology, this organisation always gets it wrong. First, it associates injustice and controversies with the "beauty" of the game. Then it considers the free-flow nature of football to be more important than fairness or the need to instil good sportsmanship into younger people. And then, whenever it is under pressure to reconsider the technology proposal, Fifa treats it as a measure to "help" under-fire referees - not as something to promote just decisions.

What right does Fifa think soccer has to be "unfair", particularly when other sports are relying more and more on video technology? The organisation may argue that sloppy referees are always punished, thus forcing them to keep good standards. But the punishment cannot restore justice. Legitimate goals have been disallowed. Teams have lost. Penalties have been given in favour of "divers". All these are irreversible, and Fifa considers them part of the game's "beauty".

It's so sad it's funny whenever Fifa defends referees by saying they are "human". Yes, they are human, but Fifa expects them to see at least four fast and crucial movements at once to determine if a player is offside: the said player, his opponents, his ball-playing team-mate, and the ball itself. TV replays, which of course cannot influence or change football referees' decisions, show that the majority of close-call offside rulings are wrong. So much for the "human" excuse.

But injustice is not the only result of Fifa's stubbornness. Its policy and attitude toward the use of technology has made the organisation a hypocrite and turned many players into scapegoats. Fifa has been ridiculously uncompromising on trivial matters that it considers will bring more good to the game - like penalising players who take off their shirts to celebrate a goal. Players can't challenge a referee in anger, even though video evidence may prove them right later. Whereas tennis players now can demand immediate video replays to dispute line calls, the player who scores a legitimate goal that is disallowed by a poor referee stands the chance of being sent off if he blows his top in challenging the decision.

Fifa has inadvertently promoted cheating, prejudice and unhealthy rivalry among fans. Worse still, the trend now is that cheats are being hailed by some supporters for winning penalties or getting opposition players sent off. This shouldn't be part of the "beautiful game", but Fifa has turned a blind eye to it. There have been occasional promising signs, like the introduction of goal-line technology to judge if the ball has crossed the line, but the overall attitude by Fifa has barely changed.

There are things that technology can't do, Fifa may argue, citing England's try that divided TV viewers, although the moment was shown in freeze-frame. Yet the powers that be at the soccer-governing organisation are acting like programmed computers. In their badly programmed effort to promote the game's popularity and beauty, Fifa officials have made everyone and everything suffer - the players, the fans, the referees and, ultimately, the game itself.

The Nation