Back to the future...

Two important issues have popped up this week. The first is Portsmouth landlady Karen Murphy, who won a High Court battle against Sky to allow her to show Premier League matches in her pub on a foreign decoder. The second was the red card shown to Jack Rodwell in the Merseydside derby on Saturday, which has now been recinded.

Lets start with the Sky issue. I have to admit I have quiet often watched Premier League matches on foreign internet feeds at home. The picture is not always great, the commentary is often foreign but it is free and much prefereable to lining Rupert Murdoch's already overflowing pockets. Plus it means I can watch matches live at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, something Sky will never let me do.

Karen Murphy, who took on Sky and won.

The full implications of this court ruling will not be known until 2013 when the current Sky deal expires, but it is hoped changes will be made. The big issue seems to be the price pubs and clubs are being charged to show Sky Sports in their premises. Hopefully this ruling will see that reduced, or at least allow other companies to tender for the contract. Quiet how it will affect the way we watch football at home is not so clear.
My hope is that Sky, or whoever gets the gig, will decide to show every Premier League live, all kicking off simultaniously at 3pm on a Saturday. The viewer would then be free to pick which game they want to watch at no extra cost. With a split screen you could, if so desired, watch two or three matches at the same time. Unfortunately I can never see it happening. But in the meantime I will continue to watch the internet feeds, safe in the knowledge that it is no longer illegal to do so.

Okay so onto the red card issue. It was clear to anyone watching the incident that it was never a red card, not in a million years. The FA, in a rare act of common sense, have since recinded it, meaning that Rodwell will not face a three match ban. But does that go far enough?

Jack Rodwell on the wrong end of the red card.

There is very little doubt that the sending off, coming as early as it did, changed the course of the match. Would Liverpool have won so comfortably if it had stayed at 11 v 11? Would they indeed have won at all?? Those three points could have a massive impact on the rest of the season, not only for both Merseyside clubs but the others in the Premier League as well. Let's assume Liverpool finish in the 4th Champions League spot, one or two points ahead of Spurs or Arsenal, the very points they won from this match. Imagine if they pipped Everton for 4th place by the same margin? Moreover every position in the final table is worth a huge sum of money, and for a club like Everton that extra prize money could be the difference between keeping their best young players and having to sell them.

Martin Atkinson, the man at the centre of the controversy.

Therefore if the FA now believe the red card was the wrong decision, the only option available to them is to call for the match to be replayed. The fact they have over-ruled the referee means that every other decision he made has to be brought into question. And of course the very result of the match must now be considered to be invalid.
Of course this would open up a whole can of worms, but if the FA have the option where red cards can be over-turned, then they must follow it through to its natural conclusion. Unless the card was issued when the result was already as good as decided - with at score at say 3-0 with five minutes to go - or so late in the game it could not possibly have had an impact - in the last minute for example - then the result should be declared null and void and the match replayed. Either that or let the referees original decision stand, however bad it may have been, as always used to be the case. Back in the 1970's there were not a million TV replays and different camera angles. If the referee sent someone off you just accepted it and moved on. Maybe it is time to go back to that?

So there you go. Saturday afternoon 3pm kick offs and no video evidence. Perhaps I am just showing my age. Of course I can see that times have changed and technology has moved on, but not all progress is good. Maybe the future can learn from the past...