NUIG

Goal-line technology… What’s the point?

/ Alan Keane / Leave a comment
Kettering to get goal-line technology? Probably not.

“Mathematical jiggery pokery.” That’s how Liam Kilmartin, lecturer in the Electronic Engineering Department described the process behind developing goal-line technology at a talk in NUIG on Tuesday the 16th of January.
In the course of an hour long talk, Kilmartin explained how the various technologies work, including the much talked about Hawk-Eye and the less talked about Cairos system. The latter is an in-ball system currently being developed in association with Adidas.
Kilmartin himself is well placed to speak on such matters. He was part of a team who were given the task between 1996 and 1999 to develop a viable “point score detection technology” for the GAA. And develop they did. However there were a few sticking points; the cameras used were too slow, for one. The GAA themselves weren’t exactly full of alternative ideas however. Making the goalposts higher, anyone? In the end nothing was done.
Not long after the project was disbanded, a small English company, Roke Manor Research, had a patent for a system not dissimiliar to the one Kilmartin et al had developed. Its name was Hawk-Eye, the name now eponymous with any discussion on goal-line technology.
On the 2nd April last, in a National Hurling League game between Dublin and Kilkenny in Croke Park, Hawk-Eye was given a trial run. It worked. The system is very accurate, very sophisticated, and very, very expensive. There is a need for Hawk-Eye engineers to be in every stadium where the technology is installed.
Therefore the system is not viable across the board, and if it was only to be available in Croke Park what type of message would that send out? The only games that matter occur in GAA HQ? Frequenters of Semple Stadium, Pairc Ui Caoimh and Pearse Stadium, to name but a few, would have something to say about that.
Across the pond, the English FA has the same problem. Sure, the majority of Premier League clubs could take the financial hit, install Hawk-Eye and have engineers on site. But, as Mr Kilmartin said, what happens in the FA Cup when the likes of Manchester United are drawn to play someone like Kettering? If the tie is in Old Trafford, is Hawk-Eye used? If the tie is in err…. Kettering’s home field, is Hawk-Eye installed so as to keep things on an even keel? Probably not.
Unless goal-line technology can be used both in the most majestic stadiums in the world and installed in the jumpers children use as goalposts, then sport will lose its universality, and the gap between professional athletes and those who support them and dream of emulating them will widen.
Additionally, if the situation did arise that Hawk-Eye was implemented at a professional level, what would happen when it fails the first time? No system is fail-safe. If the media works itself into such a furore when a referee makes a mistake, imagine what would transpire if Hawk-Eye failed, even once. There would be calls for the camera to resign.  Ex-camera’s would appear on TV to criticise the camera’s decision. The camera would be demoted to monitoring the goalposts at pub matches.
Let’s face it, we like controversy.
Anyway, if there were no more controversial goals, what would we have to debate in the pub? What would Liam, Eamonn, and Johnny have to argue about on RTE? A world with perfect sport is not a perfect world.
I suppose we’d still have the offside rule.
First published on Studenty
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Patriot Games

/ Alan Keane / Leave a comment
Get behind them. (Pic:oneteaminireland.blogspot.com)

“I would imagine that the Irish people would be ecstatic if they qualify”. The words of Cindy Blundell, a Toronto native, when asked about the possibility of the Ireland football team reaching a European Championship for the first time in 24 years. Not so Cindy.
                Enthusiasm was scarce around the NUIG campus yesterday when this reporter carried out a survey on how much Ireland qualifying would mean to Irish people. Cindy mentioned that she “would watch it if they got that far”, which was more than could be said for many of the Irish natives questioned. Shane Callinan captured the over all mood perfectly when he said “Its boring for me, I couldn’t give a s**t”
                It has to be asked why this is the case? Why are the Irish people so ambivalent about the possibility of having something to cheer next summer? Surely amidst the unlifting economic gloom, an Irish good news story of this magnitude would be something to warm Irish hearts before what will inevitably be a long winter?
                Perhaps a degree of the apathy is the fault of the Irish team tactics. Whereas the national rugby team in New Zealand played the majority of their games at a hundred miles an hour, watching their football counterparts can sometimes feel like the sporting equivalent of the dentist’s drill. It’s bloody painful.
                That’s no excuse however. The end justifies the means and if Ireland were to attain qualification then any amount of torn out hair and fingernails bitten to the quick would seem a small price to pay.
                Kevin Bourke, a 21 year old from Tipperary, pointed out that “a whole generation of Irish people have never seen Ireland play at a European Championships”. Perhaps then it is a generational gap. It is unlikely that the majority of NUIG students remember the heady days of Jack’s army, and were possibly still too young to appreciate the Saipan incident. Or as it was otherwise called, World Cup 2002.
                Not all those questioned were indifferent however. Some were genuinely excited at the prospect of following Ireland next summer. Conor Nolan, a 41 year old from Athlone said “of course I’m interested, because it’s our country and I’m a patriot”.
                This was an overall theme with those who said they cared about Ireland beating Estonia. It wasn’t so much an affinity with the Irish footballers themselves, but rather the idea that it would be the patriotic thing to do. Paul Curley, 23, from Galway held the opinion that the players were “overpaid and not worth stressing about”, and Samantha O’Connor from Longford merely admitted that “it would be cool to have something to cheer”.
                It really would Samantha. Even Paul Curley’s prediction of “a nil all draw in Tallinn and a scrappy 1-0 win in Dublin” would suffice right now. In terms of Irish support, the tide seems to be out right now, but if Ireland does qualify, then expect the country to be on the crest of a wave next summer.