Chelsea v. Tottenham: Calamitous Goals Evidence of FIFA's Stupidity

As the aftermath to a highly controversial encounter between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur begins, the match officials at Stamford Bridge will step into the media firing line as the world looks for a scapegoat.

After Sandro sensationally put Spurs 1-0 up, a combination of refereeing and goalkeeping calamity saw Chelsea gifted with an equalizer.

Heurelho Gomes proved his calamitous nature after letting a tame shot slip through his fingers, before the assistant referee sanctioned a goal that never was a goal, as Gomes made up for his mistake by hooking the ball clear before it went fully over the line.

But the goal was given, and Chelsea and their fans went into the half-time break full of renewed optimism and belief - belief that they perhaps should've never had.

And from that of course the Blues went on to win the game 2-1, as Salomon Kalou poked home to keep Chelsea's dim Premier League title hopes alive. However, even then Kalou was clearly seen to have been offside when he netted the winner. 

So of course, when such a controversial thing happens like this, where two very questionable goals see a team win, someone has to take the blame, and that someone is the enforcer of the laws of the game, the referee and his assistants. 

The assistant referee will take the blame for both goals, and as will the referee for allowing them both to stand. But is that fair?

In answer to the above, almost rhetorical question, it isn't. Yet again the poor old referees are taking the blame for a deep-rooted problem much further up the football hierarchy.

As the whole footballing world knows, the age-old, clichéd debate about goal-line technology is fully understandable and valid, yet FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his corrupt cronies refuse to listen.

The organisation that is ultimately responsible for running the global game is allowing its most important members, the referees who enforce FIFA's laws and make games happen, to be made a mockery of.

Blatter claims that as in general life, human errors are part of the sport and should be embraced, as they draw attention to football, open up the fan's imaginations and get them talking and debating everything about the beautiful game.

And it's a view the undeservedly-powerful buffoon has corrosively infected into the corrupt minds of his cronies on the FIFA ExCo and International Football Association Board (IFAB), the committee that rules on matters such as goal-line technology.  

Such a view epitomises the current stupidity within FIFA, as human mistakes result in unfair and potentially deleterious decisions being made.

Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of gaining UEFA Champions League football could well have just vanished courtesy of those refereeing decisions - decisions which had to be made unfairly by the match officials.

So what's the solution? Again, that's a rhetorical question. Goal-line technology, which is already there and used by the media, will solve these problems and make the sport fairer, not putting vital decisions into the hands of match officials who aren't in a place to make those calls.

And how can it be made viable in football? Easily, by using it in the top-flight matches of the highest ranking FIFA-accredited leagues across the world, such as the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, etc, as well as in all FIFA-accredited international tournaments, i.e. the World Cup, Copa America, European Championship, African Cup of Nations, Asian Cup, etc. 

It can be argued that it's unfair on lower league teams and in lower-ranked top divisions in other countries, but quite frankly, they're not the flagship tournaments which attract people from across the world to play, watch and invest in football.

In many other major global sports like Cricket, Tennis and Rugby Union, such technology is only used by those who can afford it, but nobody is complaining in the way Sepp Blatter has suggested. This is a world of consumer capitalism after all.

In matches, each team could get two or three challenges for example, like in various other sports, where they can get the fourth official to look at the goal and relay the information back to the referee who can ultimately make a decision.

And to avoid teams making challenges to waste time, challenges can only be made when in the referee's mind there is questionable doubt as to whether the ball had fully crossed the line.

The so-called human element Blatter keeps blabbing on about will still be there, as it will be the subjective view of the referee and fourth official which will make a decision, but the only difference is they'll use the technology already available to make a more enhanced and ultimately fairer decision.    

This way, the referees won't be unfairly put into the firing line for just doing their job to the best of their ability, and teams won't have their hopes and dreams unfairly crushed thanks to incorrect decisions.

As the whole world knows, goal-line technology makes sense. If it's not introduced soon as officially part of the game, who knows where football could be heading.