It is illegal to peek at the video screen....

[Excape Goat]

I am using the Zidane incident as example. Let's say something happened on the field. None of the ref or linesmen actually saw it. Then, the organzier played the replay on the big screen. The whole stadium and the TV audience saw it. It is human nature to be curious about what happened. The ref knew that they are doing the replay on the TV screen. All he needed to do was to look up. Then, one of the official happened to see it. My question: Is it legal for the ref to make a call based on what he sees on the TV? I have my doubts because video technology is illegal. The ref actually did not see how it happened.

[USSF REF]

I am using the Zidane incident as example. Let's say something happened on the field. None of the ref or linesmen actually saw it. Then, the organzier played the replay on the big screen. The whole stadium and the TV audience saw it. It is human nature to be curious about what happened. The ref knew that they are doing the replay on the TV screen. All he needed to do was to look up. Then, one of the official happened to see it. My question: Is it legal for the ref to make a call based on what he sees on the TV? I have my doubts because video technology is illegal. The ref actually did not see how it happened.

It is accepted that referees are NOT supposed to use a video replay. I don't know that it's written anywhere, but there is no video replay system provided to the referee for official use. The referee is supposed to observe the offense on the field and that's it.

However, the same is true in baseball - but how many times in the playoffs in recent years have we seen all of the umpires get together to "discuss" the call while they play it on the jumbotron and suddenly the umpires come out of the meeting and overrule the original decision of the ump who was closest... That always struck me as fishy, but if they're are getting it right then what is the problem? But in baseball, the game has lots of time built in to make a decision. Soccer has continuous movement.

I was 4th official at a random game once where there was a contraversial no-call on an offside decision. The coach of one team was imploring me to look at the video replay on the board, which I didn't do. I wasn't interested in seeing it as much as I was at getting him to sit down and stop yelling at the AR. Looking at the video would have taken my attention away from my duties. Also, if I decided we were wrong, there wasn't anything that I could do about it anyway. It's better to go off of what we see, until FIFA develops a video system that they approve for use in games.

[usatowin]

I was 4th official at a random game once where there was a contraversial no-call on an offside decision. The coach of one team was imploring me to look at the video replay on the board, which I didn't do. I wasn't interested in seeing it as much as I was at getting him to sit down and stop yelling at the AR. Looking at the video would have taken my attention away from my duties. Also, if I decided we were wrong, there wasn't anything that I could do about it anyway. It's better to go off of what we see, until FIFA develops a video system that they approve for use in games.

I would have invited him to watch together, then agree with the call no matter what. At worst it shifts him into calling you an idiot instead of screaming at the AR.

BTW: The whole legal to use video thing is covered in depth in about two thirds of the Zidane threads.