This is a Special Edition of Shout, the main postings for this feature will begin on the 4th December. Rashid Ramzi the Gold Medal holder of the Olympic 1500 will be stripped of his title by the IAAF. The move has been welcomed by the Vice President of the organisation, Lord Coe.The advancement of technology for testing of drug abuse has been significant. The detection in Mr Ramzi of Cera, a blood booster, was evident when the tests were repeated. Ramzi has been requested to return his medal and the record books accordingly rewritten. Mr Ramzi is currently challenging the decision and has lodged an appeal with The Court of Arbitration in Sport.
This leads us nicely onto Mr Andre Agassi.
Agassi has long passed the time limit when tests can be checked, there were not any in the first place. Mr Agassi has taken the route of guilt and conscience, to declare to the world that he took performance enhancing drugs. Possibly a publicity exercise to increase sales of his book that is just me being cynical. We are unaware of the competitions exactly this cheating took place in, however, why don’t we strip him of all titles during the timescale of his abuse, cheating. He can also return the competition money won and for good measure a life time ban on attendance of future tournaments. I suspect the money will hurt most.
This is flowing smoothly, drug abuse to cheating, we can not let this special posting of Shout be complete without a comment on Mr Thierry Henry and cheating.
Should there be a replay? Well no, not without overturning the injustice of other incidents that took place in previous matches and within the actual finals not just qualifiers. There should be clear guidelines included within the competition rules before any tournament starts, covering evntualities and situations. We would be arguing forever otherwise and be constantly prone to knee jerk reactions. Should we include technology? Why not, football at this level is so soulless and far removed from reality we might as well. Just leave real football (Championship to Grassroots)alone, let us have our debates in pubs, clubs and living rooms. In introducing match technology, I believe the negatives are greater than the positives.
Let us briefly look at the match. Ireland were fantastic throughout. The performances of Liam Lawrence and Sean St Ledger were impressive. Richard Dunne, Shay Given, Kevin Kilbane and John O’Shea produced the consistency almost expected of them. Robbie Keane, for me, was Man of the Match, he was everywhere.Ireland, however, had opportunities to settle the play-off Damien Duff and Robbie Keane missed golden chances in the second half. Let’s fast forward the build up to controversy. The cross that preceded the incident, there was an offside, and then the ball was allowed to bounce by McShane instead of clearing it, then the incident.
The referee was solid, he was confident in his decision making and correct, but then we got to extra time. He perhaps had a restricted view; the ball was also on the blind side of the Assistant. The Official on the Goal line would spot it, but please let’s not go there. So we get down to the human instinct. Put yourself in poor Thierry’s place, what was going through his mind ‘I’ve handled it, Billy has scored, we’re probably through to the finals of the World Cup, the ref didn’t spot it, the President of UEFA is French, Ireland has voted yes in the Lisbon Treaty’. It comes down to the pure act of Sportsmanship, the best a man can get.
Robbie Fowler had it, but the officials still made him take the penalty. Thierry claims he advised the Ref he handled it and immediately confessed in his post match interviews. Should Officials be encouraged to listen to players confessions and act accordingly or do we open up a whole new can of worms. My next statement is not connected to Thierry or any player or official in the France v Ireland match. News is coming out from Germany regarding match fixing, officials reacting on players confessions during matches could alter the outcome and benefit the minority of unscrupulous people within the game. Officials have their hands tied, technology will without question go along way to solve this, but it is such a remote occurrence is it necessary? It will disrupt the flow of a game and eradicate the essential components of post match debate and intrigue. These are as much a part of the game as the playing itself. Ireland has certainly been unlucky and their performance deserved more. Perhaps like Mr Ramzi the FAI can take their appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport, but don’t ask Roy Keane to be a character witness
Onwards to South Africa. Fifa will bring in CCTV FA, we will have a team of 8 match officials in striped uniforms and flags and life will be good. Opinions will be redundant because we will know without reasonable doubt; the game will have enough breaks to fit in about 2 adverts while decisions are made. Those of you who watch Super League will know that not every replay is conclusive and even the commentators call video feed back wrong.
People fear that without match technology being made available, there are concerns about future Sponsorship and funding for the game. Sit down and think, your company tag is visible at the point of the incident, it will be shown across the world time after time, or you sponsored the match that had a momentous controversial moment that will be mentioned time after time. Priceless!
This article is full of contradictions, highlighting the difficulties in producing a uniformed formula to police all sports from performance enhancing drugs and cheating. Technology in sport, regarding supporting decision making, is inevitable whatever your beliefs. First, however, it is important that all sports have a framework detailing pre tournament rules and conditions, no matter of the status of the offender within individual sports.
Clear guidelines must be agread before any compettion, covering all posibilities that can occur and the procedure to be followed. It is obviously impossible to predict all situations, so exceptional rulings may be required from time to time. The three incidents mentioned in this article are all far too common and a pre tournament agreement on structure of rules and procedures would be beneficial. So before technology, let sport agree to its terms and conditions, its frameworks and guidelines, let it make clear the punishment for drug enhancement, cheating and other wrongs and adhere to them.
Let us not forget that FIFA allegedly changed the rulings on World Cup play-off seeding for Europe, once the teams involved were confirmed. So before we start this World Cup and other tournaments around the world administrators must make the rules, conditions, and procedures clear, they must punish those who without reasonable doubt cheat or illegally enhance performance. I believe Thierry Henry is not a bad person and a mixture of instinct and the occasion got the better of him, Mr Agassi was pure greed and Rashid Ramzi the pressure of failure. Before technology sport needs to be guided by a framework of substance and clarity, before we call for the heads of officials, coaches and players lets look at the suitability of the administrators.
Shout was written by Rob McAvoy,SportTrades
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