Can technology be used in football without damaging the sport?
Sport Thierry Henry has quite literally single-handedly blown open the debate on whether technology should be used in football to ensure fairness and accuracy in play. There is, however, a lot of reluctance from fans to embrace the benefits of technology for fear of changing the fundamentals of the sport. There is no-one more resilient to change than a football fan, it would seem. But technology has been implemented in other globally successful sports without detracting from the ethos of the sport. Take tennis as an example. Cries of ‘You cannot be serious’ have been left firmly in the past as new technology ensures accuracy when dubious line calls are brought into question. Rugby is another sport in which video technology has been successful in recent years. For the fans, though, football is less of a sport and more of a religion, so any changes to its rulebook evoke passionate reaction. Just look at the reaction of the Irish after last week’s world cup qualifier. Their national squad
