PHOTO: Diego Maradona gives FIFA advise on the use of goal-line and VAR in football

Maradona in 1986 World Cup (image:twitter.com)

One of football greats, and the man with the 'Hand of God', plus  world cup winner with his country Argentina, Diego Maradona has given his take on the new technology introduced in football, by FIFA. He said while urging world football governing body, FIFA to adopt same in all its competitions.

Maradona who granted an interview to FIFA.com, talked about the role of the new technology in football, his experience playing without them among other things.

The technology which was first used in FIFA youth competition in 2017, and the Confederation Cup in Russia, attracted alot of comments, some in favour, while others kicked against it. Maradona on his part said:

“Football can’t fall behind,”  “Given the rate at which technology is advancing and the fact that every sport uses it, how can we not think about using it in football?”

 “People used to say that we’d waste a lot of time, that it would cause a lot of annoyance. But that’s not the case.

“People get annoyed when something that shouldn’t be given is given, or when you have a goal wrongly disallowed. Technology brings transparency and quality, and it provides a positive outcome for teams who decide to attack and take risks.”

The use of the VAR, he said:

“You get ups and downs during the course of 90 minutes of football,” added Maradona.

“One team can be in control for 15 minutes and then the other team takes charge. If you score a goal, you can see a lot more of the ball and get the opposition to push out more, which makes the game more dynamic. But if you score a goal and it gets disallowed, you can be forced back and miss your chance. And that’s not right.”





  The absence of such technology during his playing days, especially the 1986 world cup, He said:

“Hand of God” “Obviously I think about it whenever I show my support for the use of technology,” he said with a laugh.

“I thought about it and, sure, that goal wouldn’t have stood if technology had been around. And I’ll tell you something else: at the 1990 World Cup I used my hand to clear the ball off the line against the Soviet Union. We were lucky because the referee didn’t see it. You couldn’t use technology back then, but it’s a different story today.” 

“It’s not just my goal in ‘86 that wouldn’t have counted. Let’s not forget that England won the World Cup in ‘66 with a shot that didn’t go over the line. Then it happened to them in 2010, when (Frank) Lampard’s shot crossed the line against Germany but wasn’t given. England had the ball and scored the goal they deserved, but Germany grew in confidence after that and it changed the match completely.

“There have been lots of incidents where World Cup history would have been different if technology had been used. It’s time to change all that.” He concluded.

Source: FIFA.COM