My gut reaction is that extra officials would be preferable to using cameras or microchips-in-balls for the key reason that expensive technology would inevitably distance the top-level professional business even further from the grass roots game.
This inequality is not just a threat to the romantic idea that kids in the park play by the same rules as a World Cup final; it is also a threat to the fair competition between teams from different areas/countries. For example, the Albanian league might struggle to afford microchip balls, and if an Albanian team played a in the UEFA Cup or Champions League (qualifiers) against a team from a richer league, their inexperience with the new set up would put them at a disadvantage. Domestic cups like the F.A. Cup would also suffer from this imbalance.
To be honest though, is it not depressingly true that the haves already have a technological advantage over the have-nots? Better training facilities, better medical equipment and staff to use it, nutritionists, first class travel and so on.
Perhaps on-field technology is just an extension of that, but an option like extra linesmen, which could be implemented at all levels and across the globe, would to my mind be preferable to allowing the elite yet another advantage.
So, the big clubs might moan about loss of revenue if a decision goes against them in a big game. Tough. For 99% of the world, football is a sport, about glory, passion and controversy, not a business about markets and revenue streams, and long may it stay that way.
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Re: The Big Issue 14: Extra referees / linesmen?
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