Frank Lampard's shot crosses the line in Bloemfontein
'We are historical monuments over technology'
By Chris Harris
Football's stance over video technology has made the sport an "historical monument", according to Arsène Wenger.
The Arsenal manager is a long-standing advocate of the use of video replays at matches and last season he called for their introduction following two high-profile incidents - Eduardo's penalty claim against Celtic and Thierry Henry's handball against the Republic of Ireland.
FIFA would not budge at the time but president Sepp Blatter has said he will re-open the debate at a board meeting in July after England were denied a clear goal against Germany on Sunday when Frank Lampard's shot crossed the line but was missed by the Uruguayan officials.
The incident in Bloemfontein had echoes of the World Cup Final in 1966 when an Azerbaijani linesman awarded England's Geoff Hurst a goal against Germany after his shot had bounced down off the crossbar. Wenger was just 16 at the time and he is bewildered that football still suffers from similar controversies.
"Forty-four years later the same two countries have the same problem," he said in an exclusive interview with Arsenal.com.
"That shows you two things. Life can be funny and football has not moved forward.
"It [the Lampard incident] increased the pressure from the whole world to do something about it [bringing in video replays]. That is the only good thing that it does. But it is sad that you need examples like that to amplify it.
"I don’t know how many more examples we need. I just feel we are historical monuments that can’t move forward."
[Wednesday, June 30, 2010]
