Ref’s, Linesmen and technology

You watch an American Football match and you’ll see a hoard of officials swarming over every play and throwing flags where they believe they have seen a transgression. It’s well organised and well policed. If you watch Rugby you’ll see the same scenario controlled by a referee and two lines people. They do however, have the support of a video referee and if the on-field ref has some doubts he can ask for assistance. A classic call would be ‘Is there any reason why I can’t award this try?’ He is just checking that he hasn’t missed a clear infringement earlier. Note that the ‘ball’ for want of a better word, is in the on-field referee’s court. He asks for confirmation and is not overruled by persons away from the play.

In the higher levels of football we now have VAR – effectively a Video Referee. Unlike the Rugby situation, the VAR persons can instruct the referee to come and look at a video that shows they might have got the decision wrong and it is sort of implicit that they will then amend their decision to reflect what the VAR officials have determined to be at issue.

It’s in the very genes of football that fans will expect referees to be both impartial and impeccable in their decisions. The former should be a given while the latter is the holy grail and therefore unattainable. Of course, most of us see errors by the ref as being examples of bias – I have done it myself. While that’s often unfair, I have witnessed it at certain grounds and when the home side’s Photographer confirms that the penalty given against you was never, ever, in the penalty area… You can understand why fans get suspicious and lack trust in the officials. This is especially the case at lower levels of the league tables.

Yesterday I found myself caught in the spotlight of a key decision taken by the officials at our match against Chichester City. I had the camera ‘evidence’ – whatever that means? At our level there is no VAR – all decisions are, I think rightly, taken by the officials on the spot and what they’ve decided goes. We may not like all their decisions and sometimes we may doubt their motives in giving the decision but it is the same for everyone and it feels cleaner than the multitier process at the higher levels of the game.

Wingate took the lead late in the first half with a nicely headed finish by Gianluca Botti…

Chichester came back with 2 goals in the second half and looked to have the game sown up. Then in injury time Ryan Lowe took a shot at goal…

…Sorry – that’s a bit out of focus and grainy because of the lighting conditions.

The ball passed through the keepers legs and the last defender stepping back to try and clear it – Falling over he scuffed his attempt…

…The ball continued towards goal…

…While the player reset his leg. Note where the Referee’s Assistant is in these shots – Ideally placed to adjudge if the ball fully crosses the line.

Now the technology bit! There’s a noticeable gap between that shot and the last in the sequence and thus the photographic evidence is lacking. The next shot shows the defender with his leg extended and the ball is not visible…

So what happened? A bit of history – Back in the day sports photographers would add a motor-drive to their camera. They’d probably get 2-3 shots per second as the drive dragged the film through the camera. There was no link beyond whether the photographer was pressing the shutter button or not.

In our modern world, the camera’s brain is able to assess whether the human brain is behaving in a manner that is likely to produce unacceptable photographic results. In the modern world the art of Cartier-Bresson would probably be unacceptable to the camera’s micro-brain. As a photographer you take risks to get shots. Here I was tracking the ball as it travelled towards goal in dodgy light conditions (hence the fuzziness and the grain). The shots should have all been taken 1/5th of a second apart but, here’s the catch. Unlike the old days of motor-drives, the modern camera will not take a shot unless it’s happy that it has focus – it might not be the focus you want but if it hasn’t got focus on something then the shutter won’t fire until it does have focus. That’s what I think has happened here – You can see that the last shot is more in focus than the preceding ones. The key shot was lost because something spooked the camera’s focus. It can happen in lowlight conditions especially when panning with the action.

So I don’t have the key shot showing the ball over the line but I was watching all the way through the viewfinder and I’m certain it did. But I don’t matter! The Ref’s Assistant said it did and in game terms that’s the truth 😎👍 Interestingly, when the adult fans who all had their axes to grind had moved away I showed the sequence to the Chichester kids who’d asked to see but had been overwhelmed by the adult’s – They said it was a goal!