Fifa tests new tech for ball out of play and offside

The more they mess around with new rules, the bigger the mess!

Have Fifa got nothing better to do than add more and more complications to what used to be a straight forward game of football?

If they concentrated on preventing the mass goalmouth chaos that occurs whenever a corner kick is taken, they would be more useful.

Twenty years ago, the most contentious question on a football pitch would always be that of whether the ball fully crossed the line for a goal, Geoff Hurst's goal in the 1966 World Cup Final being the most famous example.

We now have a chip in the ball which can calibrate this exactly and which then sends a signal to the ref almost immediately -- goal or no goal. Ask yourselves when you last saw any controversy over this type of situation?

Offsides could be dealt with in exactly the same way. Every player has a chip fitted in each boot, and he is onside if there are at least two opposing sets of chips in the boots of the defending team.

Like the goal line technology, it would be an entirely binary decision, yes or no, which requires no interpretation from either the ref on the pitch, or from any VAR observer.

Every offside is judged purely on the basis of the chips in the heels of the boots, so no further controversy over whether someone is played on or offside by a fingernail or a bushy eyebrow!

It's obvious that the principles of the game are being taken away from the match-going fan, the more it becomes catered for the television companies.

This possibly backs up your argument about feelings of corruption, Paul, because the television companies will definitely want the biggest supported clubs in the hunt for honours because this will obviously attract more people, or is it customers, to watch their product.

It's all down to the chips.