World Cup 2010 Blog: “Could Uncertainty Be an Alternative to Video Replays?” plus 1 more |  |
| Could Uncertainty Be an Alternative to Video Replays? Posted: 16 Jan 2010 04:20 PM PST I’ve been watching a couple of matches of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico recently. It’s one of the things you do as a Bundesliga fan in January. It was also one of the things I always wanted to do, given the reputation of the tournament, the players involved and the fact that it took place long before my time. There was no fuzzy warm romanticized childhood or teenage memory I could ruin by revisiting it. Inevitably I took note of the little differences between the football of the early seventies and today. Bare knuckle goalkeeping, “flying” substitutions and photographers sitting around the pitch and getting hit by footballs. Yet, what really challenged my football viewing habits were the offside calls. Given how hostile FIFA reacts to modernity and video replay technology, I began to wonder whether taking the opposite turn could be an option – voluntarily roll back and reduce the coverage of those potentially wrong calls instead? It has actually been done in another sport – in a way. Another thing a Bundesliga fan can do during January is spent his or her Saturdays watching obscure winter sports like ski jumping instead of football. A sport most popular in the Alpine and Eastern European countries and Scandinavia. The goal is to “go down an inrun with a take-off ramp (the jump), attempting to fly as far as possible” to quote from Wikipedia. Many factors play a role in how far an athlete can fly and one he can’t influence are the winds blowing around the hill, which can have a big influence on the outcome of a jump. For a long time the TV audience was presented with a real time display of the current wind conditions. Being constantly informed about the conditions under which each athlete had to jump in turn caused frequent discussions and controversies about the “just” outcome of a competition. It drove the attention away from the fundamentals of the jump, i.e. the factors the athlete could influence. Ski jumping is not a sport I follow frequently, so I don’t know when this practice was changed, but nowadays the TV viewer is no longer presented with the wind conditions. The commenters still have access to them, but usually only make vague references unless there are dramatic changes during a competition. I’m not sure whether this was the intention or not, but this small adjustment to the amount of information presented to the viewer, greatly helped to refocus the attention on the athlete and not the wind. Something similar could be done in football. Of course, it’s also a valid point to insist that uncertainty belongs to quantum physics and not football. And after all, the skiing federation is working on a way to factor in the wind conditions into the points total for a jump to improve the quality of the results. But since FIFA has little interest in improving the quality of the results of a football match, we might just as well be better off not knowing everything.
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| Climbing Through Windows to Try to Get Training Time, OR: Who’s Running this Tournament, Anyway? Posted: 16 Jan 2010 07:00 AM PST
Diarra’s life was so glamourous yesterday, in fact, that he and his team were reduced to begging security staff to allow them onto the pitch for their scheduled training time. And, when that didn’t work, they found themselves trying to climb through windows. And when that didn’t work, they just headed back to their hotel, having not trained for their must-win match against Malawi on Monday. The reason? Even though it was Mali’s scheduled practice time, the Algerian team was on the pitch. And they were allowed to stay there because… Well, y’know, first come, first serve. Who’s to blame? The officials say it’s fellow Group A members Algeria:
It’s hard to tell if this is true, particularly since this is the not the first time this has happened, and for a Group A team, too. Malawi had two days before their loss to Angola when they were unable to train because the pitch they were scheduled to be on was in use. Yes, twice. Does kind of make you go Hmmm, yeah? Especially since the host country are in the group? I’m not sayin’, y’know? I’m just sayin’: Helluva way to run a major international tournament. This is even more important because Group A is still very much up for grabs, as you can see in the table (which I cheerfully swiped from our Malawi blog): If Algeria was at fault, it’s hard to see what they would stand to gain from this little bit of gamesmanship. If I’m reading the tiebreak table correctly (tiebreak criteria shown at the bottom), if they beat Angola, they go through regardless. If they lose and either Malawi or Mali win, they’re going home. If Algeria and Angola draw and Mali wins, the first tiebreak is head-to-head, so Algeria goes through because they beat Mali. And if both games end in draws, Malawi goes through because they beat Algeria 3-0. So Algeria may have actually hurt their chances by helping a team that could send them home. If the responsible party was Algeria. Like I said. Hmmm. Tie-breaking criteria 1. points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;
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When you’re good enough to ply your trade in Europe and play international football, you’ve got an easy life, right? Ask Malian captain and Real Madrid player Mahamadou Diarra (pictured.)
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The 16 team tournament that happens every two years on the continent of Africa goes by many names. I’ve seen it variously referred to as (deep breath) the African Cup of Nations, the Africa Cup of Nations (no “n”), the sponsorrific Orange Africa Cup of Nations, the old school African Nations Cup, the abbreviated AFCON, CAN, ACN and probably a few others too. That’s before we get into any French language names.
This is one of my favourite World Cup moments, mostly because it features two iconic footballers. First there’s the legendary Roger Milla. The 38 year old striker who came out of retirement to play for Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup, after receiving a persuasive phone call from Cameroon’s President Paul Biya. Milla scored four goals at Italia ‘90 as Cameroon made it all the way to the quarter-finals, the first African team to do so, and celebrated each goal with his now legendary (and oft copied) cornerflag dance.
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