Arsene Wenger’s call for red cards to be handed out retrospectively to players found guilty of diving saw the debate about the use of technology in the game reopened on the first weekend of the English Premier League season.

When should it be used? How far should it go? Would the use of video replays undermine the authority of the referee? The same questions come up whether this is being discussed at FIFA headquarters in Zurich or in any watering hole after a game.

For FIFA, the issue of refereeing authority was enough for them to dismiss a proposal by the Scottish FA to introduce retrospective sanctions.

“The disciplinary decisions taken by the referee on the field of play during a match are final,” a FIFA statement said.

The SFA proposal was interesting, though, as it raised the prospect of referees reviewing the tapes themselves – a sort of self-asessment, in fact.
 
Retrospective viewing would not slow the game down but it would, as Wenger has said, be a way of catching the cheats. And if referees still had the final say themselves, shouldn’t that be enough to satisfy the likes of FIFA?

Darren Ennis, Brussels