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Zidane: no red card
Tuesday, July 11, 2006, 12:21 PM EST
[Zinedine Zidane]
"I am very conservative when it comes to the laws of the game", FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in a Reuters interview back in November 2005.
Earlier that year he said: "If we start to make it too scientific this game will lose its fascination."
What he was basically saying back then and this is still his thinking today is that football must keep its human face and must accept errors.
This means, no supporting technology may be used during the game, such as a video replay for the ref.
Millions at home saw the replay of Zinedine Zidane's header against Marco Materazzi in Sunday's WC final - on their TV screen. So did the journalists in the stadium, who all have a TV set in front of them.
The only ones not getting the replay are the refs on the pitch, the players and the spectators inside the stadium. The fans don't get the replay because FIFA doesn't want to cause any commotion because of a controversial scene (they only see the goals).
The refs don't get to see it because this would change the nature of the game (to accept human errors, see above).
Italian coach Marcello Lippi said after the game that the fourth and fifth official both saw the slow-motion and then informed referee Horacio Elizondo about the incident. French coach Raymond Domenech agreed saying: "We have Video in football."
Absurd as it is, but if fourth official Luis Cantalejo and his colleague Victoriano Carrasco really used the replay for their decision to inform Elizondo about the incident, Zidane shouldn't have seen a red card during the game (he could have been punished after the game).
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