Afa Argentina National
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Argentina to Introduce New 'magic Spray'
Over here in England we have been considering introducing technology into football for a number of years now and nothing has been done about it. FIFA have road-tested goal line technology at the under-17 World Championships and the results were positive but still we focus on the problems or drawbacks to these obvious improvements to our game than the positives.
Meanwhile in Buenos Aires the Argentine football authorities are hastil preparing plans to bring their domestic league in line with the 21st Century by introducing a spray which can be applied to the turf which vanishes within a minute.
The thinking behind these plans is simple. If there is a line in place then this will deter pesky walls from moving forward when a free-kick is to be taken whilst the referee has his back turned. By introducing the spray the hope is that the time between the awarding of a free-kick and the actual spot-kick being taken will reduce significantly and the ball will be in play much longer.
An executive committee meeting on Wednesday night the Argentina Football Authority (AFA) announced that it was going to employ the new substance throughout next seasons second division campaign.
Another vanishing spray was used in the Brazilian league way back in 2002 but it proved unsuccessful although Pablo Silva, a Sports journalist working with the company who developed the new product claims that the two solutions are in no way similar.
Silva told Reuters,
“We started work in 2000 and we didn't make it public.
"The Brazilian one appeared in 2002 and the substances are completely different. One has nothing to do with the other.”
The invention is the brainchild of the very same journalist who had the idea for a vanishing spray eigt years ago following a friendly match against former school pals.
He recalls that his side were trailing 1-0 with two minutes remaining when they were awarded a free-kick. The defensive wall moved forward to within three yards of Silva and the referee took no action. Driving home Silva had the idea for the spray and has been working on the product ever since.
During this time he has travelled watching many matches in order to discover whether this was a major issue in World football. He went on to add,
"We have observed more than 1,500 matches all over the World and we have studied how long it takes to take the free kick an how far the defensive wall moves forward.
"We have proved this is not just an Argentine problem, it happens everywhere.
"Hopefully this can contribute to enforcing the current rules and improve te time that the ball i in play."
Whether or not the FA will take such a bold move in order to improve our game remains to be seen, we must be wary of their decisions though, remember the did appoint Steve McClaren as national coach...
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