Alan Pattullo: Cameras everywhere but none where it mattered

Published on Friday 10 February 2012 01:26

WEDNESDAY night at Tynecastle, and surveillance is the watchword. Police and stewards scan the stands. Security personnel infiltrate the supporters.

There are cameras everywhere, as one would expect for such a high-risk encounter as Hearts against Celtic. And yet, crucially, there is not one where it was most needed – directly above each goal-line.

Everything is done to aid those who hope to control events off the pitch. Yet on it, referee Willie Collum has to guess whether a football crossed the line or not. He has a microphone fastened to his face. He has a digital clock strapped to his wrist. Yet he has no way of telling whether a header by the Hearts striker, Stephen Elliott, has crossed the line after taking a deflection off Joe Ledley and before being clawed out again by Fraser Forster, the Celtic goalkeeper.

Attention, in such instances, quickly switches to the assistant referee, but they can be as redundant as anyone in these situations, which often follows goal-line skirmishes. A cluster of bodies in front of Andy Tait meant he, too, would be guessing at whether it should be ruled a goal or not.

It was the last thing Collum needed. It was the last thing the Lothian & Borders police wanted. No-one is suggesting the atmosphere was all sweetness and light before the incident. Yet it certainly took a nastier turn in the moments afterwards as the home supporters seethed with resentment and the away fans revelled in the anguish of their hosts. Collum, meanwhile, had to get his mind back on the game, something he managed to do more successfully than many Hearts players.

A few struggled to regain their composure and Scott Brown feasted on the loss of focus with the “second” goal of a remarkable opening spell. It was just three minutes after kick-off and already we knew the game was set to be defined by a single controversial incident. Even Celtic will wish it hadn’t been so. The controversy threatened to overshadow a powerful performance, one which probably would have earned them three points in any case.

Sky, the broadcast company that transmitted the game live across the nation, was able to show footage which confirmed what most had suspected with the naked eye. The ball had crept over the line. Last weekend, at another stadium in the same part of town, another game-defining decision had needed to be made. Yet this one was reached in a considered manner and with the benefit of numerous replays.

Admittedly, not everyone agreed with Nigel Whitehouse, the TV match official at the Scotland v England Six Nations clash, when he judged that the Scottish stand-off Greg Laidlaw had not applied enough downward pressure on the ball to be awarded the try. There was, however, satisfaction that the decision had been given sufficient consideration and was based on all the evidence that could possibly be provided.

Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, accepted that his side had “copped a break” on Wednesday night. It is another stroke of fortune which goes towards evening out his many complaints dating back to last season. Yet why should football forever rely on this assumption that sides are advantaged by erroneous decisions as often as they are wounded by them?

Indeed, Forster is getting used to making such desperate interventions. It’s fair to say he has won his side at least a couple of points already this season. In December, his sharp reflexes helped him flick out Lee Wallace’s back post header in the Old Firm match at Parkhead, which Celtic won 1-0. It might well yet prove to have been a significant moment in the title race. While it was still hard to judge whether the ball had crossed the line even after viewing television replays, it is still surely better to be able to utilise such assistance, since there is no way the referee – who again was Willie Collum – was able to know for sure either way. His assistant referee was, once more, unsighted.

We are becoming so used to the routine debate about goal-line technology that it is possible to forget that there exists the possibility of implementing the innovation for real. And despite Scottish football’s current status as a backwater, Scotland does have a significant say in what happens.

While the English Football Association might have other things on their mind at present, next month they host the 126th Annual General Meeting of the International Football Association Board [IFAB] in Surrey. Stewart Regan, chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, will be among the gathered officials, with goal-line technology again high on the agenda of the body that determines the laws of the game. His own view has been well aired via a tweet sent out after that game at Ibrox in December. “Another example where goal-line technology would have been useful,” he informed his followers on Twitter.

At last year’s IFAB meeting, a year-long extension of goal-line technology tests was granted. The latest results will be examined in Surrey before what is described as a “definite decision” will be reached at a specially convened IFAB meeting in July, the day after the final of the European Championships.

Perhaps it would be helpful in convincing these guardians of the game of the need for change if the outcome of such a showpiece game rests on a disputed goal-line call.

Comments

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16

waynebijleyeerheid

Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:18 AM

#13 200 decisions and you counted everyone of them.......aye right How many decisions went Rangers' way 08-09?........... That's one of your 4 years.................. Then tell us about 07-08,06-07 and all the other years that the bugridden's favourites have won the league..........................Therapy is available for persecution complex, you know.

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15

waynebijleyeerheid

Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:13 AM

Good to see that despite Rangers' poorish show this year they still have the ability to keep the paranoid up all night.

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14

waynebijleyeerheid

Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:13 AM

#13 .Quote..in the last four seasons Rangers have had over 200 decisions go for them..end quote............. And you were counting every one of them?............. Aye right. Just how many decisions did they get in 08-09? ..........That's one of your 4 years. Or for that matter 07-08? 06-07?.......................... Why don't you just have a session with a therapist, see if something can be done about your persecution complex?..........................

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13

TGM Numero Uno

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 07:31 AM

Amazing the furore, the outcry, the demand for goal-line techn ology and for refs to be disciplined...and all because...Celtic got two decisions in their favour...in the last four seasons Rangers have had over 200 decisions go for them....yet no furore...no outcry...no demand for TV technology to come into play...only in Scotland eh?

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12

lysdexic

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:40 AM

#9; Spot on mate. Rangers have won 54 championships, 3 in succession in the last three years because the Celtic Mafia run Scottish Football. But the Mafia are not daft, they 'throw' a few bits of silverware now and again, just to make the whole thing look respectable, and only you have sussed their diabolical plan. If you click your heels three times and repeat 'there's no place like home', you'll find yourself climbing a marble staircase to an office where you can devise a dastardly plan to usurp the Celtic Mafia. Perhaps it could involve some sort of other 'under the counter' payment plan so that you can afford to bring in heavy hitters right under the noses of the Mafia. If that doesn't work, use money you don't own to buy players you couldn't afford, to rack up debt you can't pay, to tap money from yourself that you haven't got yet, to purposely put yourself into liquidation and wreck Scottish Football..... That'll fix them!

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11

Pas D'Elle Yeux Rhone Que Nous

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:16 AM

Allthe9s: And what about the referee's decision to whistle Hooper offside when he was clearly on and one on one with the keeper in the same match? Is that worthy of a steward's enquiry or doesn't that fit your agenda?

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10

lysdexic

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:14 AM

Referees are getting it in the neck this season for not guessing. I wonder why that is! Just another point though, since Andy Tait's call too was that the ball was not over the line, why is there nobody posting his life history on these forums? He was in prime position to make a better guess you would have thought.

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9

Allthe9s

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 09:55 AM

8 Garbage ... Rangers had the same thing happen at PH only a matter of weeks ago ... this OF bias garbage is another urban myth ... the Celtic mafia run the SFA and the SPL ... end of story ... get wae the programme and see it for what it is ... one of these decisions going for one team once in a while then mistakes happen but twice in favour of the same team against two major rivals in the space of a few weeks is dodgy in the extreme ... stewards inquiry anyone?

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8

RolIand

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 09:26 AM

These are the decisions that the old firm get, had it happened at the other end I suspect it would have been awarded as a goal. It has been like this for as long as I can remember. Still Celtic were by the far the better team and even with the boast of an early goal I suspect they would have went on to win easily, so overall I don't think it had much impact on the where the 3 points went IMHO. We have seen numerous examples of us getting hee haw from ref's, the 1st game of the season, we should have had a penalty and Rangers should have been reduced to ten men, they were't but you can bet had it been the other way round the ref would have wasted no time in reducing us to ten and awarding Rangers a pen. Its not just Hearts, it all teams that face either ugly sister that has to put up with these "honest" mistakes. This is what is killing Scottish football, this is why teams have performed so poorly in Europe, we need to fix this before we can attempt to rescue Scottish football. You will also notice this decision detracts from the "singing" coming from the so called Celtic fans.

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Pas D'Elle Yeux Rhone Que Nous

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 09:15 AM

I didn't see the match and therefore can't comment on the incident but I did read somewhere that Celtic won 4-0. OK, so maybe it should have been 4-1 but it doesn't make that much of a difference, certainly not in terms of points won or lost.

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6

Hen Broon

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:55 AM

#Re Collum....as a HEARTS fan i am nether outraged at the decision nor do I give a hoot where the ref teaches.It was a wrong decision no more no less that needed several re runs of freeze frame technology hence I am happy to give the officials the benefit of the doubt. No doubt the OF benefit from refs decisions,no doubt in my mind that one or two are corrupt but lets not tar everyone with the same brush as that is simply ridiculous.

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5

View From The Shed

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:36 AM

Since they don,t seem keen to implement Goal Line Technology to assist referees in making these contraversial decisions why don,t they utilise an official behind each goal as they do in the Euro League? Not the ultimate answer but surely he would have a better view than the other officials?

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4

Gorgierules

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:00 AM

The ball was even further over the line a 12 second later when lurch scooped it out of the net! Another (in the long list) disgraceful decision against Heart of Midflothian over the last 40 years. I'm still waiting on these to be evened out.

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3

DefenderTD5

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:56 AM

A national game, played by cheats, refereed by cheats and ran by cheats. Scottish footballl has no right to be considered any better than the pakistani bowlers , it stinks ! Ran by a mafia with their own interests at heart.

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GraemeH

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:45 AM

S0FBTRC. Nice to see you are ignoring the myriad of incorrect decisions against Celtic this season, ranging from goals incorrectly chopped off, goals awarded when offside should have applied (e.g. Hearts 2nd goal in the first game at Tynecastle), penalties wrongly awarded (e.g. Hearts at Parkhead), penalties not given, failure to punish opposition players properly (e.g. the straight red that Webster should have been given on Wednesday for his ridiculous swipe of Hooper). Or does that not fit your agenda? Referees make mistakes. Oh, and the photo shows clearly MOST of the ball, not ALL of it has crossed the line (you need to consider parallax and the angle the photo is taken). It most likely continued in just before Foster saved, but there is no photo that clearly shows it. Celtic got a break, just as Hearts have had at times this season.

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