Moche culture Union Jack earring

Well, well, well. Today in the Bruning National Archaeological Museum, Lambayeque, Peru, I saw a large earring dating from around 750 AD that clearly has a Union Jack a millennium before the Act of Union.

North Peru Around Chachapoyas

We came to Chachapoyas to see Kuélap, the mountain-top "fortress" that predates Machu Picchu, consists of more stones than the Great Pyramid and was built by the "warriors of the cloud": the Cultura Chachapoyas. We got more than that: we saw

the world´s third-highest waterfall and sarcophagi to boot.

I asked the iPeru office to send me an electronic version of the map of the region so that I could begin planning my next trip. Apparently, the museum at Leymebamba is not to be missed.

Cajamarca to Chachapoyas

Movil tours now does a direct bus (50 soles) leaving at 6am and taking around 12 hours. The views are breathtaking but don´t look down if you are afraid of heights: the road is only centimetres wider than the bus in parts, with no crash barriers to prevent that plunge.

Huánuco to Huaraz

Most places in Huánuco (we were coming from Pucallpa) told us we needed to go (backwards) to Lima in order to then advance to Chavín de Huantar, site of the ruins of the oldest civilizaton in the Americas. This seemed rather ridiculous given our relative proximity on the map and we eventually found a scenic route along the Cordillera Blanca that took in some great peak views.

• In Huánuco, we caught a La Union-bound bus from Union Transport at cuadra 4, Jr. Tarapaca. 
• From La Union, we caught a 45-minute collectívo to Huallanca (3 soles).
• From there we caught one of the thrice-daily (4a.m., 4.4.5a.m., 1pm) buses to Huaraz.

Our original intention had been to stay in Chavín, which would have meant alighting at Catac on the last bus and catching another. We decided last-minute to stay in Huaraz and that was definitely the right decision.

Huaca de la Luna

The Moche culture did a paint job that looks this good after 1500 years; worth getting on a bus for.

My Ayahuasca Experiences

For information on where to try Ayahuasca in Pucallpa, click here.
My experiences with Ayahuasca varied but not to the extent that my wife Jun´s did. Her very first time and her first time with a second curandero, Jun exhausted superlatives in her attempt to capture how wonderful she had felt. In contrast, her last three nights were not so positive and the penultimate one was especially bad, so much so that she requested the help of Don Marçial to help her get through her bad trip. This seemed to be largely due to fear resulting from a lack of physical strength. The brew overwhelmed her.

It has been said that using words to try to describe the ayahuasca experience is an exercise in futility. My worry is more related to the fact that listening to other people describe a dream they had can be painfully tedious. I will try to avoid that fate by remaining general.

My encounters ranged from feeling nothing to undergoing a mammoth horror show, which, however, I would not describe as a bad trip because at no point was I afraid or paranoid. On the whole, the adventures consisted in large part of random memories plucked from the depths of my unconscious mind and served up for my consideration; the vast majority of these were negative: incidents of violence, bullying and maltreatment that I had inflicted or suffered.

Beyond this – especially when I increased my dose on my third night with Don Marçial – the episodes included scenes of imagined horror which could have been from a film like “Hostel” or “Saw” and hypothetical dangerous or threatening situations that challenged my ability to respond. If this all sounds gruesome, I am afraid that is because it was. The fact is though that I was never “lost” to the extent that I had no control over the reels playing through my mind.

Whilst there were a few recalled memories that brought a smile to my face, the main positive I got from my experimentation was confirmation of my successful transition from child bully and coward to the man I am today. I am aware that this may seem a modest achievement but IMHO, in a very un-Peter Pan way, many people never manage to grow up.

Bliar in a nebulosity of the hypothetical

Iraq inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot said he was “dismayed” to see Tony Blair disappear in a nebulosity of hypotheticals. The former Prime Minister, defending his war as “immoral, yes, you know, but not illegal”, was giving evidence in front of bereaved families.

Bliar said “it would have been better if headlines about the 45-minute claim had been corrected”, using the passive in a conditional sentence to suggest it was not his own job to inform the public of the truth. “After all, you know, if I had been a newspaper editor and not the Prime Minister, you know,” he told incredulous inquiry members.

With hindsight, he said, he would have made it clearer the claim referred to battlefield munitions, not missiles, and would have preferred to publish the intelligence assessments by themselves. Though the grammar he used is often accompanied by expressions of regret, none were forthcoming from the blood-splattered Catholic convert.

Asked to clarify whether he would have supported the invasion of Iraq if he had thought Saddam did not possess WMD, he explained to the inquiry, “you know, you would not describe the nature of the threat in the same way if you knew then what you knew now, you know. You know, knowing now what we know, you know, means you would, you know, know something you didn´t know when you thought you knew what you knew, you know.”

Donald Rumsfeld was unavailable for comment.

Ayahuasca in Pucallpa, Peru

Neither Jun nor I had heard of the plant ayahuasca a year ago. Hitchhiking out of Futaleufu, Chile, in mid-February we were given a lift by a fisherman who was taking Patrick – a U.S. citizen – through the Andes and over the border into Argentina. In the course of the journey, Patrick mentioned its curative properties and Jun asked him to write its (hispanicized Quechua) name down. (The plant has other monikers – most notably “yagé” as in “The yagé letters”: the correspondence between William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg that was made into a book.)
Since then Jun has spent hours reading testimonies and papers on the medicine and even gone so far as to suggest that it has become the reason for our round-the-world trip. A trip to Iquitos to try it became a “must do”. I have been less awed by the hype but willing to experiment, as ever. In Cuzco I talked to several people who had partaken of the ceremony and one who claimed to have seen her future. I was also told by one guy I got chatting to that Pucallpa is the emerging location for shamans. 
The “ayahuasca” of the ritual is usually a “tea” prepared with two plants: the B. caapi vine that bears its name and chacruna. The result is a concoction that doesn´t entice in smell or taste but that bears psychoactive properties incomparable to any others known; there are those who swear by its curative capacity too. We came to Pucallpa, on the fringes of the Amazon jungle and seved by one of the great river´s tributaries, to experience it for ourselves. Iquitos – we figure – is just too touristy and commercial for discerning cultural appropriators like us. 
Having done some research on the net, we already had our eye on Don Marçial at km26 and caught a collectivo there but my first glance at the conditions – Jun had been considering a prolonged stay on a special diet – told me they were too “rustic” for my posh-bird wife and we left with a vague (and dishonest) suggestion that we might return a few days later. The next day though – after stopping off at not-for-us Jardín Botánico Ayahuasca (near the airport, they have good maps on their Jardín Botánico FB page) – we had two encounters with people that led to opportunities and were sitting in a darkened room the very same night with a handful of locals and no other gringos.

That was arranged through Miguel Tang. We met him at Yarinacocha when looking for a boat trip on the laguna. We did that (and saw Jardín Botánico´s lakeside retreat) and he mentioned that we could do a ceremony for 50 soles each, a very reasonable price. Miguel – who is also known as “Pituco”, after his boat - is also mentioned in our Lonely Planet guide book so we knew we could trust him.  Contact him on 961928694. 
Since we knew the process involved “purging” (vomiting is usual, shitting a distinct possibility) and had heard of one guy soiling himself three times during an evening´s experimentation, there was an element of trepidation involved in our first encounter. When the ceremony began, Alejandro, our “strong” shaman, blessed the concoction (there were syncretic Christian elements throughout the event) took the first drink and I was the second to receive it. Agua de Florida was given as hard-to-swallow chaser. Jun was second and had purged within about twenty minutes and began a journey that she was to describe as the best of her life. Sitting in the dark, I had trouble getting comfortable and relaxing into receiving the “spirit” of the plant. I spent the best part of three hours yawning. Finally I got up to go the toilet and was surprised by how disoriented my body was. I subsequently purged from both ends but saw nothing.

Four nights later – after a jungle excursion - we tried again. This time I took a follow-up swig and received shallow visions and experienced some feelings of insignificance and self-criticism. My trip, however, was over within an hour of imbibing for the second time. The next day we bought some prepared ayawaska (the preferred Quechua spelling) and tried it on three consecutive nights without a shaman. Nothing to report, unfortunately.
Finally, we made the decision to go back to Don Marçial (061788754) at km26 and phoned him to arrange it. We then spent four consecutive evenings there (coming back to town in the morning to rest at our hotel) and – especially on the third night, when I increased my dose by 50% - I finally felt the concoction overtake me. Click here to read my description of my dark but rewarding journey.

Juanita, wooly monkey

Stayed at "Villa Jennifer" in Tingo Maria, where we saw a tamarin for the first time. Unfortunately, all the primates were caged.

If this is happy: 2010 should be a good New Year for Watford Fans

What is happiness for a football fan? I argue that the elements are largely in place for followers of the Vicarage Road club.

Only two weeks ago I was at work telling people Watford had gone into administration, having left home before the deadline for a deal was due but fearing it would not happen. Despite a home defeat to Derby straight afterwards, I have since been reflecting on the factors in the equation of what makes a football fan happy with their lot.

First of all, there is the relative league postion of the club. The key word here is “relative” because it relates to two things, the first of which is the expectations of the fan. As with all the elements in the equation, this is subjective.I grew up watching the Horns on their rise from the old Division 4 to second in the old Division 1 and UEFA Cup football and an FA Cup final. For a while after that, my expectations were of top-flight football but thoughts of that era have long since passed. Nostalgia is dangerous, after all.

With the financial meltdown the club have suffered since their season as the Premiership´s basement boys – and more specifically the fact that we sold most of best players this summer and many of us feared we would be relegation fodder – expectations were low and therefore even a mid-table position exceeds them. Recent draws at home to high-flying Nottingham Forest and away at Bristol City´s Ashton Gate are results many of us would have taken beforehand and solidify our safety for the season.

The second part of happiness with the relative position of the club is a fan´s eye on the competition. This could be described as a sort of schadenfreude factor. For Watford fans, this would primarily mean laughing at our bitterest local rivals: Luton Town, whose descent to non-league status after a 30-point deduction last season most of us would recognise as unfair (but would still take some satisfaction from). I personally wish them a speedy return.

Queens Park Rangers would be our second local rivals and although the billionaire club are generally on the up, our recent 3-1 defeat of them at the Vic and the fall-out from that game (with their now ex-manager Jim Magilton involved in a post-match “incident” with midfielder Akos Buzasky) was a source of glee.

There is also a large slice of schadenfreude in seeing Brendan Rodgers fail at Reading (and recently receive the sack) after we felt betrayed by his decision to move away from the Vic after six months. Similarly, seeing our ex-defender Mike Williamson fail to make an impact – or even start a match – at Portsmouth after his petulant behaviour and transfer demand brings a wry smile to Hornets fans´ faces.

Another (perhaps less important) element of happiness goes beyond results and their effect on league position to style of play. When Watford were higher in the league but playing hoofball under former manager Aidy Boothroyd, there was booing amongst some of those attending the Vic.

I was wrong to doubt the credentials of manager Malky Mackay when he was named successor to Rodgers. He has ensured the team play some attractive football and has made shrewd signings (including loanees) which have seen the Horns outplay some far bigger teams. Whilst the January transfer window will likely see his team further depleted, Malky should be able to keep the young team on the rails (as he has after heavy defeats this season) and on track for a mid-table finish.

It is happiness regarding future prospects that leaves Watford fans with an element of uncertainty. Although billionaire shareholder Michael Ashcroft paid off the (approximately five-million-pound) loan that was being called in and therefore threatening the club with administration, he seems reluctant to invest the money that would make our future more certain.

The final element involved in the happiness of a football fan might involve a cup run. This looks unlikely for Watford this season with their impending FA Cup Third round tie at Stamford Bridge, but defeat at Chelsea will be more lucrative than one elsewhere and gives the fans a good day out. Expectations will not be high and can therefore not be disappointed.

So I have identified five elements in an equation that I feel contribute to a fan´s happiness and believe Watford fans can feel happy in relation to them. Have I missed any factors? What else is involved in a fan´s happiness? Can you be happy with your team in relation to these factors?

Kiva loan first repayment

At the end of October I blogged about Kiva, a microcredit organisation that helped facilitate loans from people like me to entrepreneurs who couldn´t access the traditional financial system because they did not have the requisite capital. I lent a group called Emprendedores de Sicuani $25 to help them acquire merchandise. Today I had my first repayment of one-third of the amount.

Since I have credit on my pay-pal account (due to winning a prize for my “Video technology in football” piece), I decided to make another loan now that I can see the money is paid back. I chose to lend another $25 to Manuela, a woman who lives in the city of Pucallpa, which Jun and I will be visiting in the new year. Manuela is a single mother of two children and sells general merchandise from a small store set up in her home. She needs a 2000 sol loan to buy grocery items and beverages to sell in her store.

I encourage all who would like to help alleviate poverty in the world to sign up to Kiva and make a loan to someone who is trying to help themselves. It feels great and all this at no cost to you.

The Ten Key Footballing Moments of the Decade

This is my second "..of the decade" list. These things are always subjective and I am ready for the backlash: the list is unashamedly based on the view of an English football fan and includes five on-pitch and five off-pitch moments.

England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich
After Keegan´s walkout, England fans feared not making the Japan-Korea World Cup. Sven Göran Eriksson inspired the national team to a series of victories in the remaining qualifiers, and the icing on the cake was this 1st September 2001 win, in which Michael Owen notched a hat-trick. The Germans being Germans, they still went on to be the most successful European side in the following year´s World Cup Finals.

The Collapse of ITV Digital
The cost of the football rights was the main reason for the 2002 liquidaton of the company and its failure to be forced to pay (the Football League´s lawyers – Hammonds – were sued for 150 million pounds but asked to pay only four pounds in damages) meant it was the league teams which suffered, having budgeted for the television contract.

A ten point penalty for entering administration
Football league club woes were added to two years later when the league introduced a penalty for those clubs entering administration (a procedure allowing businesses to keep operating without being forced to sell assests in order to pay their debts). This has affected a number of clubs – most recently Southampton – and threatens more this season. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of teams having points deducted for other (often related) reasons and that the number of points deducted has shown a gradual increase (ask Luton fans).

France 0 Senegal 1
Pape Bouba Diop´s goal provided one of the biggest World Cup shocks in history. The holders went out at the first hurdle without scoring a goal and unfancied teams such as South Korea, Japan and Turkey performed far better than anyone expected. The trend in non-favourites exceeding expectations continued into Euro 2004, and culminated with Greece winning that competition.

Leeds implode
After 14 years in the top flight and extensive loans taken out to chase the dream (I´m not sure they quite lived it), Leeds went into freefall and – after suffering a ten point deduction as outlined above – plunged to football´s third tier. The financial problems associated with adapting to relegation from the English Premier League have been experienced more recently by a number of teams including Charlton.

Abramovich buys Chelsea
While many Football League clubs were impoverished, in 2003 the world´s super-rich began to see the English Premier League as an outlet for the pesky interest on their billions. Roman bought Chelsea back to back titles (with no little help from Jose Mourinho) and since then Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City (twice), Manchester United, Portsmouth (twice) and most recently Birmingham have been sold to foreign owners, though admittedly with differing levels of benefits to the clubs concerned.

Zidane uses his head
“Magic is sometimes very close to nothing at all”: the thoughts of the great French player some time before he headbutts Mazerrati and ends his final professional match as the first man to be sent off in a World Cup Final.

Andres Iniesta scores against Chelsea
The late late Barcelona goal prevented a second all-English final in a row, which would have been the first time ANY two teams met in consecutive European Cup/Champions League Finals. Much of the world felt grateful until they were forced to sit through the lamentable Manchester United – Barcelona final.

Spain win Euro 2008
The “perennial underachievers” ™ finally shrugged off that title in style.

Real go for Galacticos II
After Barcelona´s fine year, their great Spanish rivals Real Madrid went on a spending spree to shame Roman Abramovich, yet their purchase of Manchester United´s Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool´s Xabi Alonoso may prove to benefit Chelsea more than anyone else in English football. The resurgence in Spanish football might also see a decline in English clubs recent (relative) domination of the final stages of the Champions League.

How wrong did I get it? What would you include in your key footballing moments of the decade?

The inconsistent unpredictable Championship

The Nobel Prize winning Danish physicist Niels Bohr famously stated “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future”. I cannot better that, but would like to add that it is made that little more difficult by inconsistency in the elements that you are basing that prediction on.

Sportingo writer Donna Gee was a little hard on herself in claiming that she had been foolish with her assertion that the Championship was the most competitive league in Europe (shortly before seeing Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion begin to run away with things at the top, much in the manner of the boring Chelsea and Manchester United domination of the Premiership).

With her beloved Cardiff beating West Brom at the the Hawthorns yesterday (shortly after a run of one point in four matches had ended), they are back up to third just three days after she was bemoaning them dropping out of the play-off positions. Meanwhile, Leicester, who had suffered only one defeat in ten games to see them enter December in third place, lost two on the trot to immediate rivals, conceding eight goals in the process and dropping to seventh.

It seems clear that the best prediction concerning the play-off positions of the Championship (at this stage at least) is that it will remain unpredictable. Indeed, the only element at the top of the table with a degree of consistency is Newcastle´s home record. They are not too poor away, either, and I would not be surprised to see them dominate this league the same way Wigan and Reading did when they were Champions.

Although West Brom are a good footballing side, three defeats at home already this season indicates that they are not going to maintain a steady challenge to the Magpies. They might well end up second, but I reckon there will be fewer points between them and third than there are between them and Newcastle.

Hmmm, this prediction lark is fun, isn´t it?

For further unpredictability, however, look no further than Middlesborough, who thrashed QPR 5-1 at Loftus Road on Saturday only to lose at home 3-0 to Blackpool days later, with the Tangerines just getting over their first home defeat of the season, and this by mid-table Barnsley.

QPR, like Leicester, also conceded eight goals in two defeats and have dropped to twelfth from fifth. So now Swansea and Nottingham Forest, who each took a mediocre four points from the last six, seem to be on the front foot, while a meagre one win in three matches has taken Blackpool back into the play-off places.

The pattern of unpredictability in the bigger picture can be broken down. Just about any team who goes on a good run of four or five games (let´s say winning ten or twelve points from them) will likely have a place in the play-off positions at the end of it.

Even Watford, who have consistently lost one match for each win since the end of September, briefly found themselves in a giddy sixth position after beating QPR 3-1 on Monday night. When your average point rate is less than one and a half per game (as the Hornets´ is since back to back wins in early September), you should not really find yourself moving upwards in the league.

Not, unless, this is indeed a competitive league where most teams have the potential to beat each other, precluding consistency and defying prediction.

Look at Reading, who appear to be withering away hopelessly in nineteenth position in the league until you realise that there are as many points (eleven) between them and sixth place as there are between sixth and top of the table. It may not seem any comfort for them at the moment, but that gap is bridgable, though whether Brendan Rogers is the man to provide the results to span it is another question.

I think Newcastle will take this league at a canter but as for the positions immediately below them, I think it is fair to assume that there will be lots more comings and goings yet. And if I am wrong? Donna, I hope you will stick up for me.

My 10 top films of the decade

December means "list time" and we can do a whole decade. List number 1...films in no particular order.

Donnie Darko
It has to be Richard Kelly´s director´s cut if you are to get near to understanding the fluffy rabbit.
Mulholland drive
David Lynch weirdness with the movie as masturbatory fantasy, gotta love it.
Memento
Chilling tale of revenge all cut up that just edges Irreversible out of this list.
Mclibel
In a decade of biting political documentaries (Enron, Supersize me, Wal Mart, Faranheit 911, The Corporation and Bowling for Coloumbine), this was the most inspiring.
Crash
I thought Hollywood could have nothing interesting to add to a conversation on race. This proved me wrong.
Traffic
The other Hollywood entry to surprise me in the decade.
Borat
He stepped over the line, then squatted and shat on it. Great exposé too.
Spirited Away
Because I spent 3 years in Japan, this film was just so natsukashii and beautifully made.
Gangster number 1
Paul McGuigan shows Guy Richie how it is done: Paul Bettany´s dead eyes make this the best British gangster film bar none.
Shaun of the Dead
If only because he refuses to throw a Prince record at the zombie.

As Good As It Gets?

Another month has passed in the Hornets´ season and I have heard nothing from the younger Watford Boy about his views on how our season is shaping up: we lost 5-0 at West Brom in early November but followed that up with two home wins, against Preston (2-0) and Scunthorpe (3-0). Loanee Heidar Helguson got three of those goals, Danny Graham and Tom Cleverley one a piece. The two home wins were followed on successive Saturdays by defeats at Crystal Palace (3-0) and Newcastle (2-0) before victory at home to billionaires QPR tonight, 3-1 – with Lloyd Doyley scoring his first professional goal – took us into the play-off places (albeit for no more than 24 hours).

That, I believe, is probably going to be the highlight of our season. It is true that the Championship is looking very much like a two-horse race at the moment and Newcastle and West Brom will likely end up in the 90 to 100 point zone, while the other four places look increasingly open as teams stutter, start and stop again. Although we seem, in theory, to have as much hope as Leicester, Nottingham Forest, QPR, Swansea or Blackpool of a top six position, (Cardiff and Middlesborough may be inconsistent but have more in reserve), I am just happy that relegation this season now looks highly unlikely and will not be complaining about a mid-table position come May.

It is not that our present position is undeserved, or merely the fact that Watford are the only team in the top half of the division to have a negative goal difference. It is not simply that we have been thoroughly outclassed by other teams in the running like Cardiff and West Brom. It is more to do with the fear that we have a thin squad already and it will probably only get thinner come January. Apparently we are playing some of our best football ever (let´s hope Hoofroyd´s tactics are gone forever) and with a Chelsea 3^rd round FA Cup tie on the horizon and Luton languishing in the Conference, Watford fans should enjoy what we have. Keep the expectations low and we cannot be disappointed. And Malkay, I owe you an apology for doubting your managerial abilities.

Bolivarianism and its critics

Last night we spoke with a Peruvian couple about politics here. The husband, Sergio, repeatedly expressed his disdain for the tactics of the “strike”, which are used throughout the country by the disaffected and disadvantaged to gain recognition for their causes (and have affected us on more than one occasion). I disagreed with him, arguing that this was the only recourse open to the relatively disenfranchised and its effectiveness – roads and rail closed to the tourist dollar – made it a useful method of having their voice heard (since the couple have their own trekking agency, there is no small amount of self-interest involved).

I explained how the miners strike in the UK had been a watershed in our country´s political history and marked the defeat of the workers, whose rights had never been the same, and argued that privitisation had been sold to us as efficiency and profit, whereas it was really job losses and higher prices. By repeatedly referring to the workers as the country, I was able to argue against the “us and them” mentality that the “educated” classes foster: “us”, the enlightened few looking towards the future; “them” the stupid masses stuck in the past. Sergio insisted that “education” was the way forward, which is a subtler take on the position that “I am educated and know what is best. If the people who disagreed with me were as clever/educated as I am, there would be no disagreement because they would see that I am right”. Or as a Venezuelan I knew in London simply repeated time after time, the poor are “estupido”.

Sergio claimed that some of these strikes in Peru were encouraged or inititated by Venezuela´s President, Hugo Chavez, and as he repeated the slurs of the right-wing news: Chavez, “ a charlatan”, Evo Morales: “a Chavez puppet”, I argued for the majority who voted for these men and pointed out that Alan Garcia could be described as a US puppet. Sergio and Jessica consider their president the lesser of two evils, and stated “better the devil you know”, in comparison to Ollanta, the “nationalist” who they seemed to imply hated white people and with whom they associated a return to the violence of the 80s. Their preferred candidate for the 2011 presidential elections is the current Mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio, who they see as having turned around an inept and corrupt city government. As for Keiko Fujimori, they felt she had no chance in seventeen months´ time.

Sergio held opinions that I disagreed with but he was a generous listener and claimed at the end of the conversation that he had changed his perspective. For me, it was interesting to delve deeper into the mindset of the opponents of the “new socialism”, “Boliviarianism” or “indigenous movement” that is gaining ground on this continent and was reinforced yesterday with Evo Morales´ landslide reelection in Bolivia.

World Cup Draw 2010

Get ready for South Africa...Group G is the main Group of Death, surely, though D for Death seems a close second. England have a sinch of a group and the cheating French can give Henry a high-five. I feel sorry for Ivory Coast, who deserved an easier group having been in Death Groups before.

A

South Africa

Mexico

Uruguay

France

B

Argentina

South Korea

Nigeria

Greece

C

England

USA

Algeria

Slovenia

D

Germany

Australia

Ghana

Serbia

E

Netherlands

Japan

Cameroon

Denmark

F

Italy

New Zealand

Paraguay

Slovakia

G

Brazil

North Korea

Ivory Coast

Portugal

H

Spain

Honduras

Chile

Switzerland

Video Technology in Football

(Please read and comment on the original site.)

Video technology won't solve the problems of subjectivity and accusations of bias which already exist in the beautiful game.

The worst refereeing decision of 2008/9 went against my football team. Video replays? No, thanks.

This Watford fan was sitting behind the goal which was at the centre of the biggest controversy of England´s last football season. On that day, in September 2008, Reading were awarded what was later referred to by the national and international media as “the goal that never was” and “the phantom goal”.

The ball went over the goal-line about four yards to the right of the goal, but was deemed to have entered the goal by the referee´s assistant, Nigel Bannister. There were other terrible decisions last season, as Crystal Palace fans will testify, but usually these decisions rest on doubts as to whether the ball crossed the line. At Watford, Bannister mistook which line the ball had crossed, a uniquely farcical error.

You might expect me to be a proponent of video replays in light of this decision against my beloved team. You would be wrong.

Though I have great sympathy for the Irish, I am more inclined to agree with the sentiment expressed by Roy Keane, who – after Thierry Henry´s handball – reminded us that the Irish had benefitted from a controversial penalty decision against Georgia earlier in the campaign. The Irish FA did not appeal then.

There are several arguments against video replays. Keane implies that “what goes around, comes around”, but the most important of these points against video, is that such replays are not always incontrovertible.

I was at the Brazil-England 2002 world-cup quarter-final in Shizuoka, Japan, and – despite being unable to see what had happened – joined in the booing-off of Ronaldinho after his foul on Danny Mills earned him a red card. On the train after England´s defeat, I sat with a TV camera-crew who showed me their footage of the incident.

Their angle showed the Brazilian had done nothing wrong and my misery at England´s exit was compounded by the feeling that I had unjustly booed an innocent man. A different angle on television later confirmed that Ronaldinho had gone in with his studs up and that the sending-off had been correct.

Video replays don´t inevitably provide indisputable evidence then. In cases of alleged fouls and handballs, there will almost always be a subjective element to the decision. Every fan knows this. Watching action replays of the same incident, supporters of different teams will see justification for a decision which favours their club. The ensuing arguments are part of the fun of being a passionate supporter.

The second point against the use of video replays in football is the question of who owns the technology. At the moment, companies such as Sky and Setanta pay billions to televise the games and it is this we use to judge events in a match. If their video becomes part of the rules of the matches, why would they continue to pay such sums to televise it?

More importantly, however, there may be legitimate doubts about the biased nature of the media. To assume that multi-national telecommunications corporations have no self-interest in decisions that affect big football clubs - which millions pay those corporations to watch - is simply naive.

What if, after a minute´s delay, the footage of a crucial incident affecting the premiership survival of a big team was said to have been “accidentally deleted” by the television company? Accidents happen, sorry.

During some international games only entities from the host nation have control of television cameras. We hear the BBC commentator saying “we have no control over what images we see” as a controversial decision is simply not replayed. This fact is demonstrably open to abuse and could become extremely contentious.

These two points easily override arguments for the use of video replays in football. It is fine to say that only captains could request replays and that the number could be limited by removing one for each incorrect challenge, but this does not deal with the essential fact that video can and does lie and would not resolve most issues to the satisfaction of players with so much at stake.

These points do not preclude goal-line technology. FIFA has not ruled out the use of a chip at the centre of the ball combined with computer technology that alerts officials if the ball crosses the line. This seems flawless (television angles are not conclusive) and does not preclude the ruling-out of the goal for other reasons.

To my mind, this technology is far superior to the current Hawk-Eye technology used in tennis, which, after-all relies on cameras and a projection of the ball´s statistically most likely path. Not only that, but there have been numerous examples of mistaken Hawk-Eye decisions, the latest being in this year´s Indian Wells Masters quarter final match between Andy Murray and Ivan Ljubicic.

Perfected goal-line technology? OK. Video replays? Never.