HOW ENTIRELY UNPREDICTABLE

Last updated : 05 January 2005 By editor

Sir Alex Ferguson renews his call for its introduction, but points out that had is been in use yesterday then not only would Tottenham's goal have stood, but that we would have been awarded a penalty as well.

Fergie said on MUTV, "I think it hammers home what a lot of people have been asking for and that's that technology should play a part in the game, particularly in an incident like that because it clearly shows the ball was over the line.

"What I was against originally was the time factor in video replays but I read an article the other day which suggested that if a referee can't make up his mind after 30 seconds of watching a video replay then the game should carry on.

"Thirty seconds is about the same amount of time it takes to organise a free-kick or take a corner or a goal-kick. So you wouldn't be wasting a lot of time. I think you could start off by using it for goal-line decisions. I think that would be an opening into a new area of football.

"We could have monitors by the pitch, but my concern was it would take too long - maybe a couple of minutes. But you can make a decision in 30 seconds - which is the time it can take for a goal-kick or corner to be taken. It wouldn't kill the game in terms of wasting time."

"I don't think you can blame the referee or the linesman because even from my position I couldn't see. It looked as if it was over, but I couldn't be sure and the linesman was scurrying back to get to a position where he could see but obviously couldn't do it.

"Everyone's talking about this incident, but we should have had a penalty when Rio went down in the box."

Martin Jol:

"What really annoys me is that we are here in 2005, watching something on a TV monitor within two seconds of the incident occurring and the referee isn't told about it. He is already wearing an earpiece so why can't we just stop the game and get the decision right.

"We are not talking about the ball being a couple of centimetres or an inch or two over the line, it was a metre inside the goal. I cannot say the referee or his assistant were a disgrace. They are only human and, like everyone else, they make mistakes.

"But we had TV screens in the dug-out and we were able to see the replays within two or three seconds. When that technology is available, why are we not using it?"

And look who had to stick his oar in, Arsene Wenger:

"When the whole world apart from the referee has seen there should be a goal at Old Trafford, that just reinforces what I feel - there should be video evidence. It's a great example of where the referee could have asked to see a replay and would have seen in five seconds that it was a goal."