Crossing the line
Saturday's contained two items which grabbed my attention: firstly, there was a superb piece with Paul Canoville, the first black player to play for Chelsea; and secondly, they interviewed Michel Platini who's putting himself forward for the presidency of Uefa.
I'll return to Paul Canoville in due course, because I'd like to offer a personal perspective on his story, but first to the great Michel (Watch the interview with Platini).
He was one of the all-time great players, and could well be in charge of European football in the near future, so his rejection of video technology in favour of having four assistant referees was particularly interesting.
Perhaps we should send him tapes of the weekend's two Match Of The Days, to see whether he'd like to reconsider his stance!
As programme editor, I'm not really employed to have an opinion, but I do think we have reached the point where the beleaguered officials may need some assistance from TV. Not to decide, for example, whether Andy Johnson was tripped for - our pundits looked at every angle of that incident umpteen times and still couldn't decide - but in other situations, such as , the game could be halted for a few seconds and an accurate decision made.
I think cricket is a good analogy: , which are by nature subjective, but marginal run-outs and stumpings (essentially, did a grounded bat reach the line?) are referred routinely to the third umpire.
In recent football history, we've famously seen that Pedro Mendes not given, and Pepe Reina penalised, clearly incorrectly, for handball, Technology would have seen both decisions reversed in a few seconds.
, but wasn't given, and on Saturday, Watford's Jordan Stewart struck lucky when his handball was spotted, but wrongly adjudged to have taken place outside the area.
In this instance, the assistant referee was on the right side of the pitch, but at the wrong angle, so the Platini solution wouldn't have worked. The Blackburn incident was far more marginal than the Mendes "goal" and could only have been sorted out for certain by a videotape freeze frame, not by any number of pairs of naked eyes.
I edited Saturday's show, and it was noticeable that three of the five games featured managers bemoaning decisions, and that all three - messrs Warnock, Dowie and Coleman - were shown to have a valid case by videotape analysis.
Clearly, human error will always be part of football - from players and coaches as well as officials - but anything which can reduce it and allow us all to concentrate on, for example, yesterday, has to be welcomed.
You can argue about the extent to which video technology should be used, but as a bare minimum, surely establishing whether or not the ball crossed the line is something which could be introduced at the top level without too much trouble.
Admittedly, the technology won't be available on Hackney Marshes, but then neither is dope-testing, or retrospective trial by videotape for a Ben Thatcher-type incident. Nor for that matter, can a run-out be re-examined on the village green like it will be in the World Cup, but that hasn't stopped cricket (or tennis or rugby) from moving forward. There - that should provoke a few comments!
One area in which football in this country has progressed enormously, however, is in tackling racism. In 1982, while still at school and having recently moved from the North-East, I was taken by a neighbour with Crystal Palace season tickets to their game with Chelsea. It wasn't televised, and I can remember nothing about the match, but something happened during the second half which has stayed with me ever since.
We were sitting in the corner next to what is now the Sainsbury's end at Selhurst, when all of a sudden the most enormous commotion erupted from the massed ranks of Chelsea fans diagonally opposite us Thousands of people were booing and screaming abuse: we assumed there was some kind of crowd trouble, but in fact it was . On his debut, and from his own club's fans.
I'd seen Laurie Cunningham encounter a few moronic monkey noises and chants as an away player in the North-East, and I knew Chelsea had a problem with far-right infiltration amongst their support, but this was just breathtakingly cruel and unpleasant.
One of the Chelsea fans who works here was at their next home game ,and says fights broke out between those fans who wanted to encourage a young player irrespective of his colour, and those who didn't want him playing for Chelsea at any price.
Twenty five years on, and after the likes of Gullit, Desailly, Makelele and Drogba have been at the forefront of a golden era for the club, Canoville spoke movingly to Focus of the bewilderment and hurt he felt at the time, of his pride and emotion during the standing ovation he was recently given at a transformed Stamford Bridge, and of the prominent place he has rightly been given by the club as a pioneer in their history.
Watch the interview with Paul Canoville
I was at Chelsea v Barcelona last Wednesday: the ground and atmosphere have changed beyond all recognition, and for the better, from the early eighties. Not only would it now be illegal to abuse Michael Essien or an opponent like Ronaldhinho, just as importantly, it's now seen as socially unacceptable, and would be challenged by other supporters. I hope so, anyway.
Not everything in Britain has changed for the better since I was a teenager, but that aspect of life certainly has. Even so, Blackburn's experiences in Poland last week, and the prejudice which still surfaces in society both here and abroad, prove that there's no room for complacency, and demonstrate why there is still a need for the week of action we're currently seeing at grounds up and down the country.
