While I agree with your sentiment the reality is that the younger generation is tech-savvy and expect technology to eliminate cheating and doubt. If football is going to attract new younger fans then it has to move forward into the technological world.
In my opinion , which obviously doesn't count for anything in the grand scheme of things , .the more help the referees have been given , the poorer they have become .
A good referee can eliminate cheating easily . We all now how to do that . The fact that they don't , or more importantly , WONT , is a slur on the game that permeates down through the ages to the kids playing Saturday morning six a side football. My grandson is six ,and a good footballer . He plays with lads and girls ,all of a similar age and they copy everything they see in the professional game . Everything .
From goal celebrations , going down in the box at the slightest touch , rolling around on the floor ,and not accepting the refs decision . The parents on the sideline condone it and there is one Dad there who actually encourages it by telling his boy to go down and stay down with one arm in the air ,ala Suarez , to emphasise the extent of his injury . And the "referees" do absolutely nothing about it . They are at the wrong end of the scale to influence anything or anybody .
When was the last time a referee took action ,in a top flight game ,against a player that swore at him . .? Not just a fuck or c... It can be any word the ref deems blasphemous ,a religious ref of any denomination can find any number of words blasphemous , but they ignore it it because it's deemed to be a mans game . Well it isn't when kids see their heroes on tv getting away with it . Kids of six very soon become youths of twelve and are very ensconced in the dark arts and lack of respect for the poor sod in the middle .
Referees and the PGMA In particular need to get their act together . They need to stop relying on all this Technological Assistance . It's all a load of bollocks . Do they really need the Assistant Referee to have a button on his flag that sends a signal to alert the ref when someone is offside .
It's the younger generation that need to be taught the fundamentals of the game . They need to be taught how to play the game . There should never ever be a Technological way to play football.
If VAR is the way forward , then the standard of refereeing is going to drop even further and nothing is going to help bring youngsters into the real world of football
