With the amazing improvements in technology over the years, many sports have been trying more and more ways to get the right decisions instantly rather than relying on the decision of the referee, who is only human. It has always been a question of bringing in technology without hindering the fun and sanctity of the sport.

Cricket used the third umpire for run-outs and stumpings to begin with and has since gone forward to boundaries, catches etc. but there has always been the traditionalist minority screaming ‘Let’s not lose the human element’. But I guess the competitiveness involved and the stakes being higher and higher with time, this has led to relying on technology to find the neutral decision which the umpire as a human being can’t provide.

I think the new challenge rule applied in tenni, where the players have the option to question a call which goes for a video replay, has helped the game. Players know they won’t miss out on the bad calls - nor will they get any in their favour.

There have been questions on whether football should also incorporate technology for offside decisions, which have become tougher and tougher to call with the players training harder and defences maintaining their lines. It has become a tough job for the referee to keep up with the pace. If they do go ahead with it, wouldn't it hinder the pace of the game? They have to be really careful because unlike tennis or cricket, football is a continuous-play sport and any stoppages only break the flow. As a fan, I wouldn't really want the game to stop too much.

If the football authorities do decide to go ahead with it, I wonder how they can implement it. Will the players wear some special device which will be caught by moving sensors at both ends of the pitch? If they plan on just providing an opportunity for players to question an offside and see a replay, I don't see that being beneficial. The game would just become too slow. That wouldn't be the right way to go about it.

Maybe they should have robots instead of referees, running across the lines with some sort of laser line-of-sight passing through the horizontal width of the pitch. A forward cannot cross the line towards the goal unless a defender has already done so. Of course the offside has to be judged from when the ball is played forward and when the forward player breaks.