Doesn’t getting it right matter?

Pardoning me for mentioning this, but isn’t it about time – now that we seem to have the video and other technology to check sporting action with a chilling degree of accuracy – that, if by chance a referee or other official in charge of proceedings on the field of play makes a stone-cold error, this should be overturned there and then by reference to the video official … or else, perhaps, at some later point after some sober deliberation?

I make the suggestion in the wake of last night’s Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Bournemouth, which ended in a 1-0 victory for the home team.  As I understand it – I’m only listening to radio bulletins and website reports of the match, but (on the face of it) Bournemouth apparently had a valid goal disallowed and Liverpool an offside goal awarded.

Right now – despite all the hot air and comment – this alleged travesty is ‘just one of those things’ and everyone seems to accept that noting can be done.

Well, why not?

If you think about it, the three points that Liverpool ‘wrongly’ took away from the game might be very useful to them if they’re in contention for Europe at the tail-end of the season, let alone the Premier League title. Similarly, the ‘draw’ (or even win) points that Bournemouth failed to gain form the match – if their goal had stood, it might have influenced the remainder of proceedings – could be crucial if they end up embroiled in the relegation dog-fight.

What’s to stop the Premier authorities – I don’t even know which ones these might be – intervening to require, at the very least, that the match be recorded in the records as a draw … if not even a win for Bournemouth?

Surely that would be fairer than the current position.

See here for a newspaper report on the match by Ian Herbert in THE INDEPENDENT

[Readers are invited to send in their favourite examples of sporting injustice (irrespective of the sport or activity) down through history … ]