Sunday 8 July 2018

HAS FIFA BROUGHT THE CHANGE WE WANT TO THE WORLDCUP

Ever since the introduction of football as a global sport in the late 19th's We have witnessed many transformation in the law of the game as well as new development and technologies to help checkmate controversies that may whatsoever occur during the game, but something was still missing and the introduction of Extra 2 Ref and goal-line technology in the last 2 previous worldcup wasn't enough to stop the accusation of given huge favour to one side which always bring much debate among football fans and one way or the other resulted in football hooliganism.

Football has moved on thanks to banning orders and better more sophisticated policing. Though It may be an overstatement to call football a religion, but it is more than a game. Football can topple governments and send nations to war/peace because tournament such as prestigious as the World Cup i.e [football’s grail]  can humiliate/honor the powerful and make superstars out of underdogs. On FIFA 2.0 the first 3 key plan by FIFA to "GROW THE GAME" are highlighted as

FOR  ALL: FIFA must enjoys broad-based, important and evolving relationships with more stakeholders, fans, players, commercial affiliates, broadcasters than  any  other  sport  worldwide.

FOR FANS: FIFA must communicate with fans transparently and effectively, ensuring that more of them have access to more football through accessible channels.

FOR PLAYER, COACHES AND REFREES: Fifa must give chance to Technological advances towards continue to aid the improvement of footballers performances on the field, coach's ability to strategize and referee's ability to protect the integrity of the game.

And no wonder Russia2018 WORLDCUP as took another turn among all the 21 worldcup tournament with the introduction of Video Assistant Referee [VAR] which reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication, hence not all decisions made by the referee are overturned except Goals and whether there was a violation during the buildup, Penalty decisions, Direct red card decisions (second yellow cards are not reviewable) and Mistaken identity in awarding a red or yellow card. The VAR introduction to the worldcup as brought more light into the tournament and allow free flow of the game with fairness and unbiased officiating by the Referees, because of the VAR we have encountered many shocking games and unexpected tackles that was not in the sight of the ref get deserved disciplinary action. 

Another good development to improve the game by FIFA is also that for the first time All teams were to be offered two devices: one for an analyst observing the match from the media tribune, another for the team on the bench. Two optical tracking cameras located on the media tribune was tracking the positional data of players and the ball. Processed data and live footage will be transmitted to the analyst workstation at the media tribune Using a bespoke “analyst application” created by Fifa, the analyst will be able to view the player metrics and footage. The coaches on the bench will not be allowed to view live video, only still images with annotations from the analyst. With this you can say FIFA has done a great job relating the game we love to the grasp of our hand using the transparent and effective measure to communicate with the fans as well as opening the door to use new technologies to interact with the coaches to forseak tactical development, strategies and broad overview of players stats as well as their strong and weak areas during the game. 

These new developments doesn't only help the fans to interact but also help the coach to quickly pin point the tactical changes needed to exploit in order to change the game to their favor.

Worldcup2018 has witnessed many sudden surprise among fans which make it more intriguing and amazing experience to witness the humor and see football takes a twisted turn in Russia, the tournament favourite to win the lucrative prize are being topped by the underestimated teams because every players and referees are under heavy supervision and every errors are under the  reference of other supporting referees who recheck and call back the officiating referee to make amendments, we have seen the likes of Germany, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Portugal etc eliminated because there isn't any favor calls or one sided officiating to bring any favorism to win any match, which ever team that win, won it due to their tactical and strategic planning and preparations.

We have all made our appraisal of various teams, the fans, the players, even the managers and the kits, inasmuch there is no end to the numbers and kind of topics that can be discussed and with reference to the Football and most especially WorldCup using the right Facility to deepening the  relationship between fans and the game, both on the pitch to the spectators inside the stadium, and through the myriad of means by which people engage with the game from afar it's safe to say FIFA are indeed taking football to another level.

@iamhismahilll