Get rid of them!
Honestly, why is this so hard to understand? Play offs are fundamentally unfair. Teams should be rewarded by playing consistently through a campaign. If they finish one spot behind the current automatic qualifiers/promoters then they should qualify or get promoted just as equally, not forced to play another round of games designed only to line the pockets of FIFA/UEFA/FA beaurocrats!
This case is perfectly highlighted by the Ireland vs France game last night. Ireland deserve to be in South Africa this summer, France do not. Ireland managed to go through the entire first qualification phase undefeated, despite being in a tougher group than the French. However, France will be in the World Cup. In what way, shape or form is this fair?
To compound matters, the way the French beat the Irish was through an act of blatant, if uncharacteristic, cheating by Thierry Henry. I'm not saying that the match should be replayed, that'd be ludicrous and open up a whole new can of worms. However, in order to prevent such monumental cock ups something has to be done.
Video technology has to be introduced, even if it's just in a limited capacity. It works in every other sport that it's been tried in, so why not football? People argue that it'd break up the flow of play but that's nonsense. In cases such as the one last night, how much longer would it have taken to check the videos than it did to stop players protesting?
This doesn't go for just play-offs either. It should be implemented across the board for higher level games. With football being the multi-billion pound industry that it is, shouldn't fairness be a critical issue?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment