If anything has made the case for the greater use of technology at sporting events it is this World Cup, after a number of shocking decisions not only led to players being unjustly sent off or having goals disallowed but in teams losing games they have rightly won.

Last week saw England denied a vital equaliser against Germany when a shot from Frank Lampard bounced off the crossbar and landed behind the goal-line. Camera technology, which commentators could check within second's showed that it was a goal, but the linesman and referee did not see it and so it did not count.

England, as everyone knows, went on to lose 4-1. One could argue that the decision would not have affected the end result, although no doubt a 2-2 equaliser would have helped English morale and may have led to a different outcome.

Later this week we saw Portugal's Ricardo Costa unjustly sent off against Spain in the quarter finals after some tragicomic acting from Joan Capdevila. This decision was even less likely to affect the outcome than the Lampard decision as Spain were already 1-0 up and the incident happened in the 89<sup>th minute. Nevertheless it still took commentators seconds to see the truth of the situation while the referee blindly brandished his red car.

By far the most outrageous decision came yesterday though when Ghana played against Uruguay in the quarter finals. In the last seconds of extra time an intense assault by Ghana saw them head the ball for what would have been a match-winning goal, only to be prevented by Luis Suarez knocking the ball away from goal with his hand.

Suarez was rightly sent off and Ghana were awarded a penalty. However the African nation unfortunately missed the penalty which would have taken them 2-1 up and through to the semis. Ghana lost the resulting penalty shoot out and Uruguay go on to the next round.

While Ghana could be chastised for missing the crucial penalty its a penalty they never should have had to take. The referee may have been acting within the letter of the law but surely it would have been more just to simply award the goal as the message sent to Suarez is that by cheating in the most blatant and unsportsmanlike fashion his team can win, albeit at the cost of him being sent off.

Had the referee just awarded the goal instead one could argue that justice would be served.

Surely after such grotesque decisions Fifa must re-consider the way it referees games at the top level. Fifa has said that it decided at a board meeting earlier this year that technology which could have prevented such blatant goof ups would not be adopted as it would be too expensive to implement worldwide.

This coming from a sport which pays its players in figures which some bankers might envy was surprising. The lack of logic was also surprising. It was rather like saying that because we can't install cameras and such like in my back garden for a kick-about we should not do it for the highest form of the game. Again this desire for equality seems odd given the salaries involved.

It must be time for Fifa to change its refereeing to a more technology centred approach, if commentators can see what is going on better than the actual referee then why not put an extra referee in a "commentators box". Football would get better and more just decisions and referees, who in fairness cannot see everything, will not have to live with the bad decisions they make and the abuse that often comes with them.

Tennis uses technology, even Cricket, a sport considered to be the ultimate in unchanging tradition, uses an extra official to eliminate poor umpiring. Is such change really beyond a sport watched by millions worldwide, millions who would rather see their team lose because they were rubbish than because a referee cannot see what everyone at home can?

Germany