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Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Where’s Tofiq Bahramov when you need him?

Just slightly over the line, then

Goal or not? A tricky decision to make, if you’re reffing at Old Trafford.

3 Responses

  1. Martin Says:
    January 5th, 2005 at 11:51:19

    Even better picture here:

    http://www.ewhurst.com/images/cheated2.jpg

  2. terreus Says:
    January 5th, 2005 at 14:46:19

    Goal line decisions are easy enough if the ref has his linesmen on the spot, but even I wouldn’t have even been able to sprint that distance to get to the line in time and I consider myself quite a good sprinter.

    He didn’t have a clear view, neither did his linesmen, so unless he was on stilts he had no choice he has to be absolutely certain that the ball has crossed the line. Until they introduce other ways of watching the goal line we have to put up with the ref’s decisions. Good or bad.

  3. Chris Says:
    January 5th, 2005 at 16:34:35

    Well…assuming the linesman for that half is standing on the halfway line, the furthest away he could possibly be (unlikely, but possible). An average football pitch is 115×75 yards, so the distance between him and a point on the goal line in the middle of the goal is (with a bit of Pythagoras and conversion to metric) 62.7m.

    Assuming the linesman is 1.8m tall, then the angle the line of sight to this point makes with the horizontal is atan(1.8/62.7) = 1°38.7′. The angle the point 1 metre further away along the ground (probably less than the distance than where the ball landed), judging from the picture, is atan(1.8/63.7) = 1°37.1′, which is (approx) a 1.6′ difference of arc. The average human eye has a resolution of below 1′, so the linesman should be able to distinguish what is behind the clearly-marked line and what is in front of it, even in the “worst case”. Especially when this is what they’re trained to do, and so cannot be considered an “average” human being. And of course, there’s the fact that most of Carroll’s body was clearly over the distinct, well-painted line when he finally made his clearance, surely a good indicator of where the ball is even if you can’t be totally sure.

    You’re right about putting up with the decision, though…the fact it was Spurs makes it that little bit easier to get over it. :-)


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