Get some glasses, ref.!!

The "goal that wasn't" in the Watford-Reading match at the weekend has reignited calls for video assistance to be available in football matches. I think the basic argument in favour is overwhelming, but the difficulty is deciding just how it should be used. The two basic approaches are to go the way of rugby and cricket, where the officials call for assistance from an appointed video referee/umpire when they are unsure, and the tennis (and American football) approach where a certain number of challenges are allowed to be made - presumably in football this would be by the manager or maybe the captain. Either way you have to have regard for not disrupting the flow of the game. So I think in play you would have to restrict it to specific matters such as - has the ball crossed a line or not, who was the last person to touch the ball before it went out of play, or did a foul take place inside or outside the penalty area and things like that. I do however think there is a case for later review of foul play and yellow and red card incidents, with the facility for withdrawing or imposing these retrospectively in the light of video evidence. It's a difficult area, but the present situation where TV viewers are able to see what the referee can't is untenable.