A case AGAINST the use of video evidence - what the hell would we argue about on a Saturday night?
One picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say, so a few dozen frames of video-tape tells a story and it is a story of the swings and roundabouts that make up this wonderful game.
For a number of reasons, on Saturday, I heard various pontifications about Thierry Henry's contributions to Arsenal's latest step towards the Premiership title, at Blackburn. I heard commentary describing his disallowed goal and similar description of the striker being fouled by Craig Short and scoring from the subsequent free-kick.
I also heard Rovers boss Graeme Souness slamming the referee, Alan Wiley, for awarding the free-kick from which the Gunners took the lead, which proved critical in the destination of the three points.
Mmmmm, I thought. It will be interesting to see the footage of those two incidents and draw my own conclusions. Not that I don't value the opinion of the radio reporter, who reported on the Blackburn v Arsenal game. And I respect the view of Graeme Souness above most. So, and I had to wait until the convenient Sunday morning repeat of ITV's Premiership show, I watched edited highlights with great anticipation.
EXHIBIT 'A' Brad Friedel releases the football and as it drops for him to kick clear, Thierry Henry raises his foot to challenge, which he is entitled to do. The striker's foot was around knee-height and not, as in the quoted instance of George Best v Gordon Banks some 30 years ago, head-height. When the ball drops behind the American keeper Thierry rolls it into the empty goal, 1-0? No, ruled out, erroneously I believe. But Thierry 'va va voomed' on, didn't sulk and got on with his game which brings us nicely to…
EXHIBIT 'B' With the game pegged at 0-0, thanks to Alan Wiley ruling out Henry's earlier goal, the match swung on another decision, just short of the hour. Thierry Henry raced forward onto a through ball from Ashley Cole and was nudged by Craig Short, which is what centre halves are supposed to do. Henry went down, which is what tends to happen when 14 stone of muscle interrupts the cadence of a runner weighing much less. But, for me, and the reason I agreed with the decision to award a free-kick, was the Frenchman's body language and the look on his face when he got to his feet amidst Short's accusations of diving. It was a look of innocence from Henry, a look that indicated he would much rather have made progress to get in his shot than make acquaintance with the Ewood Park grass.
But, what goes around comes around and, with true justice, Thierry Henry curled a trademark free-kick beyond the despairing dive of Brad Friedel into the junction of side-netting and stanchion, for goal number 29 of a season that will surely see him voted Footballer of the Year.
Only Thierry Henry knows if he could have stayed on his feet rather than risk the lottery, even for a free-kick specialist such as him, of a set-piece. It may happen a thousand times every Saturday when players make contact with an opponent. Five hundred times the decision may go one way, five hundred times it may go the opposite way and some referees might see a raising of the foot as a legitimate challenge others may rule as Alan Wiley did.
If football wasn't such a game of swings and roundabouts then there would be little to write or comment about. Don't you just love it.
