In a professional football career that spanned 18 years, I had the good fortune to play for the London Lasers, Kitchener Kickers, Montreal Impact, Darlington FC, Dundee United FC, Wigan Athletic FC and Ipswich Town FC.
I had the honour of captaining Dundee United, Wigan Athletic and Ipswich Town, as well as the Canadian Men’s National Team. I earned 49 caps for my country, and count each and every one of those games as the highlight of my career.
Since retiring as a player in 2008, I have remained involved in the game as a broadcaster and analyst. From October 2010 until June 2012, I was also the Technical Director of the largest youth soccer club in Canada, the Oakville Soccer Club. I resigned my position to focus on my career as a broadcaster, and am now pleased to be working exclusively for TSN covering Major League Soccer, EURO 2012 and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
On the day I was announced to be joining Oakville.
JDV
Is it legal for a player to chew gum during a match, as the England goalie did against France..
I’ve been watching TSN’s coverage of EURO2012. Very good job with the analysis that you, Luke and Darren have provided. I did not contact you with comments in the TSN forum because I do not use Twitter, Facebook etc. Much has been said about “video replay technology” in your broadcast and I wanted to get a point across to you personally about it. However I’m not necessarily interested in having my comments publicly posted, but rather to make sure that those who are in the public eye, like yourself, have had this argument expained to you.
International soccer has a history of severe violence that accompanies the fanatical fansmanship that it creates. If and when FIFA/UEFA introduce “goal-line technology” will this have any consequences of incereased violence from supporters? I would argue that it will, simply for the reason that the average supporter cannot understand the litigation/technical detais that come along with such a technology. Goa line tchnology and the technical details that it imposes could potentially frustrate the average fan. Will all soccer supporters be able to understand that “the decision made by the on-field official can only be over-turned in the event that the video evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the official was wrong”. In north American sports we’ve had these technologies in place for almost twenty years now, and we have our fare share of frustrating calls that have come from it. I needn’t mention anything more than the Stanley Cup winning goal of 1999 by Dallas which had an infraction in it. After video replay (with the Dallas media already on the ice) the goal was improperly rewarded and the home team won the cup. After this when the Buffalo team returned to their town, the supporters chanted “no goal” at the airport. Will soccer supporters chant “no goal” or will they take matters into their own hands on the streets?
Many more arguments can be given concerning the use of video technology in American sports, arguments based upon the in place use of the technology. One obvious argument would go like “When two identical plays happen in different games they can have opposite calls made on the field that will stand, regardless of video replay, if the replay is inconclusive”. This could make for a sticky situation if one team is awarded a goal in one game and then another not awarded in a second game with the same play. The supporters of the team in the second game would be quite angry.
All summed up, there are many arguments against introducing the technology, arguments based upon fact and evidence already obtained in North American sport where the technology is used.