Hey, does anyone know anything about this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7776602.stm Sounds like a great idea, could work so well that it can later be implemented during international matches both at the club and national team level. According to the article the spray invented by Pablo Silva has been used in the Argentine second division.
It's being tested on the 2nd division. I don't know while the thing works as it's supposed i believe there are troubles with free kicks because referees are lazy and don't do what are supposed to(after all this isn't something that required any "technology" at all). In the other hand seeing 2nd division matches i noticed the problem isn't fully resolved because referees mark part of the circle where opposing players can't stand but rival players standing outside the wall aren't noticed and occasionally override the minimun distance, less frequent some walls give small steps forward few seconds before the free kick performer makes contact with the ball. They also mark a circle of where is the ball supposed to be placed.
*bump* Well the thing has been used for some weeks now and after attending some matches and seeing the thing live more closely and also more often on TV i can talk about its usage. 1-Referees still make mistakes calculating the distance, this is very rare though. 2-It's unclear if the players are supposed to stand on the line or behind the line. It would seem that they should stand behind the line but many end up on the line, and some players occasionally try to remove the line with their boots(which can be done easily). And more than once with the spray the referees don't look at the wall and players may go up forward even before the free kick is performed. 3-The line itself, many referees draw straight lines, but why? After all the distance should be based in the radious of the ball(which has a round shape) not a straight line at X distance. 4-Most of the time when there's a free kick that's like looking at the box diagonally or like on the side of the box they make the mistake of placing the line in a place that's not convinent for keepers so the wall ends up being placed beside the line and it's up for the players to take care of the distance(basically the spray is worthless), however some referees avoid that problem doing long lines(and depending of the shape if it's a straight line we'll end up in problem 3, specially if it's long). This is the most common problem in my opinion. 5- At times referee think that it's pointless to use the spray in some free kicks near the box that could be somewhat useful. This doesn't happen that much though. So yeah, overall it doesn't seem like it solves the problem because with the spray or without it it's up to the referees to take responsability of what they're supposed to do. I think the media makes a mistake trying to look over at if more goals are coming from free kicks or not, it could still happen in a way or another it ends up being a pointless standing, in my opinion.
Thanks for the update, I was always curious how this would be taken. Looks like it was suspect to begin with and ridiculous at best.
I think that this is also used either in Brazil or in one of the South American international "Copas", because I was watching that stuff used within the last 8 months. It might have been watching the state tournaments at the start of the year in Brazil. (I was in Floripa for ~2 weeks late January to early/mid February.) It kind of like that "magic spray", but it lasts for about 5 to 10 seconds and then fades away. It's great for keeping cheating bastards from being themselves. I thought it was a great idea.
If i recall correctly they used it in Brazil at some point but they stopped doing so. The problem is that in the end it's all up to the referee so the spray is more or less pointless because we're back to the beginning.
These sprays have been used in games in the Brazilian tournaments for several years. I'm pretty sure the CBF (Brazilian Soccer Federation) requires refs to use it. You can check it out and get them at http://www.soccersprays.com
I think they did, but if i recall correctly at one point they stopped doing so because the thing would stay on the pitch, the argentine formulae for the thing goes after 40 or so seconds. The time has passed, and it becomes more evident when referees make wrong use of it...