Date: 28th November 2011 at 1:33am
Written by:

Dear Mr Blatter,
I am writing in relation to the Premier League game between Manchester United and Newcastle United that was played yesterday the 26th of November 2011. I am sure a man of your authority has heard of the incident that occurred in the second half where the linesman decided to award a penalty wrongly to Newcastle for a sublime challenge made by Rio Ferdinand on Hatem Ben Arfa.
I just wonder how the use of technology available to the world would not be of use to the most popular sport in the world for incidents such as the one described above, especially when the officials are as incompetent as yesterday.

Now I understand that the idea of goal line technology may be coming in to play, with camera’s being placed on the goal lines at Rochdale, however my proposal is of a different sort and something that Tony Pullis (Stoke Manager) touched on during the week:
“We saw certain decisions last weekend where a lot of criticism could have been saved if there had been an opportunity for a manager to make a challenge,” he said. “If it is proved to be right it takes the pressure off the referee, as it does in cricket, tennis and rugby.
“Someone in the stand would have a monitor and you’d tell him when you wanted to appeal a decision.
“It would take 30 seconds and you could have it on the big screen. It would add to the excitement, as it has in tennis, cricket and rugby.”

This idea would amalgamate the video technology used in Tennis by having a challenge in each half and also the technology in Rugby such as “You may award the try” or in our case “You may award the penalty”. Now upon hearing the comments from Mr Pullis I wondered myself whether this would slow up our game, however it was proven yesterday that the time it took for the referee to consult his linesman and the official to then decide on the wrong decision took longer than it would take to consult a video referee and award the right the decision which in the case of yesterday’s match was without a doubt a corner!

There isn’t a recession in football and there is an abundance of money available, so it does make me question whether this has been considered? If not why hasn’t it been considered? And why can’t it be tested at a lower level where the matches aren’t as important. It’s a no brainer to me and I’d like to think many other football fans read the Stoke manager’s comments and agree, especially after yesterday’s penalty decision that could play a big role in what part of Manchester the Premier League title will be homed come May.

This I feel would greatly improve our wonderful game and give a much greater chance of the best team winning. I hope you will take this idea into consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Ryan Nugent.

This draft of course has not been sent to the head of Fifa, but I assure you it would have been if we had a man in charge that understood the game and was not corrupt. Unfortunately Mr Blatter is neither.

You can follow me on Twitter : @ryann689908

 

One response to “An Open Letter To Sepp Blatter”

  1. wiuru says:

    Dont forget to enclose a donation to the charity of Blatters choice ! FFS