Stone scores, Silva ducks
Twice yesterday I was struck by how we have allowed technology and legal small-print to stand against common sense and sportsmanship.
Instance one
Bernardo Silva is sent into an offside position to put off the goalkeeper at a corner. He succeeds and Manchester City get a last minute winner against Wolves , because Silva ducked.
Instance two
Max Verstaffen got his elbows out and drove Lando Norris off the Circuit of the Americas. Norris got past despite being out of bounds but picked up a 5 second penalty losing a podium position by a second when he crossed the line 4 seconds up.
In both cases, arguments will continue, but they won’t be about sporting achievement, they will be about the technicalities of VAR and the MotorSport equivalent.
The technocracy of sport
Matches and Races are too often determined not on the pitch or course but in committee rooms and studios.
Verstaffen and Norris at the first corner, (no infringement this time)
We are left wondering how incidents like the one above are not investigated and the one that lost Norris the race was.
This really isn’t what sport is about. Technocracy and legal arguments apart, sport is about Norris and Verstaffen, Wolves and City. It was a cracking Sunday for the armchair fan but I wonder whether the real beneficiary of video evidence isn’t the business of sport.
Technology and common sense don’t always go hand in hand in my opinion, Wolves should have drawn and Norris should have taken third place.
I base this on sportsmanship rather than legal niceties . But what do you think?