RESEARCH QUESTION
What’s the significance of technology in football in UAE?
AIM and OBJECTIVES of the Research:
To discuss types of technologies used in football
To involve pros and cons imposed by the use of different technologies.
To study technology of making decisions and human made decisions.
To involve the inference and discussion presenting how fair is the use of technology in football industry.
INTRODUCTION:
We cannot imagine a part of our day to day life without technology. Technologies are leaving an impact on every edge and corner of society and industry by connecting every single person in one way or another. The industries like sports, education, business, government, healthcare etc. have starred easing their tasks with the help of technology and are already getting influenced by such advancements in technology.
Evenutally all tasks which were perfomed by human are quite getting replaced with the technology. The reason is not because they have to do it but because it solves
1 Man made errors from the referee side
2 Capacity of human eye or ear to identify a fowl.
3 It can assist umpire / referee's decision.
Owing to all these important facts ,the invasion of technology in sport has left gigantic impact on sports. It has changed the way people view about sports and in our case football.
Football is a fever which has recently spread to many countries. People in Europe and some parts in south America were dire fans of this game. According to them , the only disappointment they have after a game is that there were decisions which were erraneous that have changed the total game in another direction.
Such decisions taken by the referee were mainly due to human limitation and prediction. So to address this there was a new technology called the goal line technology .
The technology has hence refined the official’s decisions by providing them equipments that could overcome their inability to see or hear and are used during games to come to a conclusion.
Due to new and emerging technology the notion about football changed in UAE and has got increased attention due to the straight game they place. This has indirectly contributed to the revenue of football in UAE.
Football has seen advancements in design and materials of their apparels . The clothing technology has provided sports with dry fit materials which absorb sweat more faster than a normal cloth ,providing them wjtb proper aeration . So the new uniforms, gloves,helmets and pads used in sporting provide more comfort and flexibility. There are wide variety of shoes which give greater grip ,flexibility and agility to the player.
Scoreboards in football are one small adjustment to the new digital technology where the displays are more clear.
To improve their football teams, nowadays analytics have become a compulsion in sports. They record data and run it through set algorithms. This allows tracking the motion and movements of player. The data further can be analyzed for skills of players and its further improvement. This technology has provided the teams a overview of their future expectations .
In football, the decision made by referee is not always correct. Sometimes, there are questionable kicks and there is not fair judgment. Goal-Line technology is answer to these controversies. Like, goal-line technology was used first time in 2014 FIFA world cup. This technology allowed to provide computer assisted decisions during tournaments. 14 cameras were used, which gave extensive coverage to analyze each and capturing of 3 dimensional motion of ball. But goal-line technology was criticized due to heavy expenditure(White,2015).
Goal Line Technology is a system that is used in football in order to detect if the ball crosses the goal line. FIFA officially amended the laws of the game in July 2012 to allow Goal Line Technology to be implemented in football stadiums. Many incidents that involved refereeing errors, none more famous than the disallowed goal of Frank Lampard against Germany in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa led to the prompted the FIFA to introduce Technology into the sport.
There were many people that wanted Goal Line technology to be introduced earlier but Top Officials from FIFA and UEFA like Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were initially against it as they felt it removed the “Human Element” of making mistakes from the game, But due to the large number of errors made by the referees on Goal Line decisions, FIFA had to introduce Goal Line Technology to ensure each game ended in a result that was fair for both teams.
Ever since its inception the technology used in GLT hasn’t failed the sport. Every decision made by GLT has been right, as a result there is an absence of controversy and drama which was a big part of the experience for the fans of Football. Although the game laws allow for Goal Line technology, It is not implemented universally in fact it is Implemented only in a few High Level Competitions. This is because of the large price tag that GLT comes with. In 2013 the MLS decided not to opt for GLT as it would cost them a hefty $260,000 per stadium and $3,900 per game.
Although more progress is required in the technology aspects of GLT in order to bring the cost down. FIFA has taken the right step to improve the Sincerity of the game.
Many people have debated over the comparison of technology made decisions and human made decisions. Technology made decisions are fair in terms of decision for players as human do commit mistakes in analyzing which may play with careers of sports players. Every technology has pros and cons but with proper care it can change the way football industry operates in UAE.
Though technology has invariably eased the lives of many players and referees. There are some drawbacks to it. Some people agree with the usage of any technology in football because they consider that good and accept it that is for the fairness of the game while others disagree with this because the whole essense of the game will gone by stopping the football game in the middle and checking the video to find out mistakes.
On contrary, it has also been argued by many sports specialists that use of technology like eagle eye has improved the decision making ability and can cover up for the faulty decision made by humans. However, when we such systems a clear decision is guaranteed or ensured. The opinion regarding eagle eye technology remains divided as there are segment of people who find it complicated and confusing. Also the equipment involved and installation have to be taken care of.
However, some of the decisions is correct without any emerging technologies and sometimes the referee can control the match with less mistakes. But with the emerging technology the amount of mistakes will be zero and the game will be fair for both teams
and
Evans,
(Collins
By overturned. This further reduced the call proportion to twenty five percent (Nafzigerofficials, only about fifty percent of the total games which were then reviewable, 2004). Hence, the debate on the use of advanced technology for reviewing the human based decisions is not the polarized result of the question whether and to what extent the artificial decision making should intervene the game, provided that decisions taken by humans are robust 2008).
Hawk-Eye's innovative ways of providing trustworthy official solutions in games has marked a beginning rational developments of several sports related services which has led to altering the face of production in sports, management of content, proper coaching and interaction with fans. Many countries and associations have started using such technologies for the improvement of the quality of the game.
In football, it is not that the decisions made by referee have always been correct. There have been some controversial ones too when referees decided to award a free kick which were questionable (Svantesson2014 ), or giving penalty in doubt (Svantesson2014) or deciding if the ball touched goal line (Svantesson2014 and Singh2012). It is debated that goal line judgement could have avoided such controversies.
Criticism of the goal line judgement has been portrayed as dehumanizing or robotizing the game. On FIFA world cup 2014, the goal-line technology was adopted (Svantesson,2014) but has not yet been brought to lower league matches.
Analysis of several articles on sports technology revealed six types of controversies primarily. These are:
Artificial decision making systems
Range of safety equipment
Issues related to technologies assisting humans to make decisions
Issue concerning the fairness of decisions taken with the help of such technologies.
Effectiveness of the decisions made by the technology
Missing the "human element".
These technologies will be beneficial if used for football in UAE. But care should be taken regarding the extent to which these technologies should be used.
This research couldn't have been more appropriate because UAE is hosting 2022 FIFA world cup and should be well aware of the technological happenings around the world especially in football industry. World is eager to see the game with a better view and better experience , so as a host of the world's biggest football event UAE must research on ways to include technology to give a unique experience to football fans around the world.
RESEARCH QUESTION
Is it worth to use technology in football in UAE?
AIM and OBJECTIVES of the Research:
The research proposal aims at discussing different emerging technologies that are being used in football.
It also involves analysis of the opportunities and threats posed by the use of different technologies.
A comparative analysis of technology based decisions and human made decisions is made.
LITERATURE REVIEW – TECHNOLOGY CHANGING FOOTBALL INDUSTRY
Overview-
Technology has already taken a piece of its pie already , If technology wasnt there, referees would not or could not a have taken fair decision for team during critical times.Technology enables coaches to improve the performance of sportsperson or players through their feedback or either by viewing their performance. Analysis of sports performance has become easy. Accuracy in the time measurements, improvised equipment and apparels, use of wireless microphone by referees help make better decisions(“Sports equipment and technology,” 2008).
The use of technology in sports is not something new. In some form or the other, technology has always been a part of sports with its own advantages and disadvantages as perceived by the individuals. The opinion on whether the use of technology in sports should been seen as opportunity or as threat has always been divided (James, 2016).Some people believe that use of technology is a boon for football, whereas others think that technology has done more harm to sports than good. For example, the video-replay technology when used in sport has faced criticism that the stopping and starting of the game in order to check the video of a contentious moment will disrupt the flow and pace of football and thus hamper the game, (Svantesson, 2014; Nafziger, 2004).
Implementation of technology in football industry-
Video camera launched during 1980’s was the first revolutionary change in sports. As it provides facility to capture and observe performances of players. Video cameras are kept in goal posts or cricket pitch to record the performance of players. To measure time bound performances of players, computers brought electronic timing facility. This helps in detecting the mistakes of players and improved performance of players.
To improve sports performance, the advancements were made in apparel to ease players difficulties. Hawkeye technology brought a revolutionary change. It is the name of system in which computer and camera work together to record trajectory path of ball. In football industry, it is used as a part of goal line evaluation. It captures 600 frames per second of a goal line and computer send it to referees for further analysis of performance in fair way. Body byte and team beep test are computer software’s which are used by health professional for nutritional and fitness purposes of the players. These keep a record of the players on the daily. In football industry, many times wrong decisions are made by referees despite no fowls or errors by the team.
Soccer goal line technology-
Soccer goal line technology has made easy for referees to produce fair results for the players which shows the ball has passed over the goal line or not.This technology allowed to provide computer assisted decisions during tournaments. 14 cameras were used, which gave extensive coverage to analyses each and capturing of 3 dimensional motion of ball. Various systems like smart ball system, hawk eye system and goal ref system have raised the performance standards of football industry in UAE. Smart ball system loads ball with small sensors. It tracks the position of ball precisely and then information is sent to referee in no time (Network, 1997).
The GLT delivers information in the form of audible beep to referee in half a second. Goal Ref detection system in which Low frequency magnetic fields are used to determine whether ball has crossed the goal line. Further data is transmitted in wireless form to refrees to watch the projectile and come to a decision .
Kevlar fibre technology made helmets are best for football players which saves brain during hits. Kevlar fibres are 5 times stronger than steel and lighter as well so it suits the player better. Using foam, to make a mark on the field is one small hint of technolog. The spray contains 20% butane gas and rest water which are sprayed on the field as visualization marker for referee (Law, 2014).
Implementation of Replay systems in Sports
Jiang and Zhao discussed the rationality of replay systems employed in sports. Event Replay system was introduced with the idea of assisting sports officials for effective decision making. In case of ambiguity, match referees could use the event replay system to do away with confusion. But application of this system comes with a cost. It leads to interruption in the match and delay in play time which is not desirable (Jiang, 2006). When a match is interrupted, this not only affects the temperament of players but it also affects the enthusiasm of the viewers. So, from the audience point of view, delay in decision making is not desirable (Zhao, 2006). But this does not doubt the effectiveness of replay systems. As implementation of replay system has shown game changing results at many occasions. But this has also led to introduction of review system in which players can claim against the decision of the referee and refer to artificial decision making or eagle’s eye system.
This has two consequences.
1 The faith in human decision making is affected. That is the decision taken by the match referees can be challenged which is disrespectful for such officials.
2 It will help players to have fair chances of getting right results. While the first point reflects the demerit of the system, the second one encourages its use (Gillis, 2002).
Goal line technology in football
Ryall investigated about the arguments which are for and against goal line technology. The discussion on sports, ethics and philosophy comes into picture, though the key point remains the necessity of introducing any new technology which can reduce any confusion or arguments within the game after the implementation of any such technology. Anything that is to be introduced must be evaluated on various parameters before implementation on an international level (Ryall, 2012).
Summary
The worth of the technology has been debated by arguing about the basic nature of human that they do make mistakes which are true for both sports and daily life. The duty of a referee should be based on their intuition ratherintuition rather than the cruchingcrunching facts and figures to come to a decision (Svantesson 2014). Football has been played like this for hundreds of years and ardent football lovers would want it to remain that way.
Thinking rationally can yield some valid points in support of such systems given the basic elements of games are not affected. It is not just about the use. It is also about the extent of use. Whether the inclusion of technology in sports should be limited or not? If yes, then to what extent. Thus it becomes important to analyze the opportunities and threats of using technology in sports.
So before it has been implemented on a bigger note ,note, it should be tested thoroughly. And Yyes, it is a good investment if UAE invests it'sits energy in including technology in the game of football. industry .
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