What can be done to rectify refereeing errors?

England's Frank Lampard should really consider himself unlucky, despite the ball clearly crossing the line, referee denied the goal and England went on to lose 4-1.

As said by the English fans and many experts, that error of judgment was no excuse for England's exit in the last 16, perhaps they were the second best team at the end of the day.

But, again there will be debates on how the referee could have disallowed Lampard's goal which could have changed the face of the match altogether. A clean strike which clearly hit the cross bar and bounced inside the goal line to the hands of the keeper. In a crunch match situation, where a single goal is so much important, how can it be fair for a player like Lampard and his team to be deprived of a goal, which was a goal by fair means?
Clearly after the match, German Keeper, Manuel Neuer admitted, he had "fooled the referee" by collecting the ball and releasing the ball quickly.

Coming into this match, there were few decisions made earlier in the group stages which were highly criticized.

Australian striker Harry Kewell who was red-carded during Australia's Group D clash against Ghana had claimed that the international referees are biased towards the less celebrated teams and FIFA has done nothing about that.

Then again on the second match, Carlos Tevez scored the crucial opener in a controversial manner. He was clearly offside as Messi released the ball, but the linesman stood firm with his decision and thereafter the Mexicans lost it completely. Clearly agitated by the controversial goal, the Mexicans seemed like they were under pressure of losing the match much ahead of the 90 minutes. The players seemed like they had lost their composure and were committing more fouls clearly out of frustration.

Such a goal can change the whole face of the match for the players in the pitch.

Now whom can we blame, the players who are looking for every opportunity to score a goal, no matter how it comes or players like Lampard, who score a clean goal perhaps a ripper of a goal but is disallowed, or the referees, or the governing body FIFA who is considered stubborn by many for not allowing technology to be used for matches?

The players are told to play fair, in the spirit of the game. But, for circumstances like Lampard's goal that was disallowed can possibly take the spirit of the players away, including the million fans following the team.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who has consistently blocked the introduction of goal-line technology, was in the Free State Stadium to see the incident and watched a replay in the VIP box.

He said it is impossible to have zero-fault system in the World Cup. He said FIFA wants better referees rather than technology. Additional assistants [referees] could happen in 2014 to make sure these kind of things are not happening in refereeing.
Perhaps he is right, but it means a lot to players like Lampard and the England team, when we have the technology why not use it. Why not use it for such a big (the most watched event) tournament?

The FIFA should earnestly address this real issue which is surely disturbing the minds of millions of Soccer fans. A flexible system perhaps where we can have both the humans and technology producing good solid decisions and raising the spirit of the game on their part.

Oneindia News