Technology has some place in sports, just not in all

By A.j. Reed
Western Herald

The ball is arguably the most important part of a soccer game.

A company called Agent looks to revolutionize the ball used in professional soccer with a system called CITRUS.

According to a description by Engadet.com, CITRUS uses a reinforced elastic structure that wouldn’t require the ball to have any air.  The ball will come equipped with GPS and RFID chips to keep track of the balls position at all times and change colors if goes out of bounds or crosses the goal line.

An accelerometer and camera would also be included to report the balls velocity and give spectators a perspective from the balls point of view.

CITRUS is still entirely a concept at this point and a working prototype is far from completion, but should CITRUS be even considered by FIFA for approval if it is finished?

At the highest levels of the game, a soccer ball walks a very thin line.  A ball is often met with much criticism from players as to how it performs.  Sometimes, keepers complain that a ball can give too much advantage to shooters and other times field players complain that a ball doesn’t provide the proper feel.

For a company to develop a ball with all the elements that CITRUS plans to have and still be approved by players seems highly unlikely.

Companies and different sports leagues may be able to implement new forms of technology into their respective games but instead of asking themselves if they can do it, they should be asking themselves if they should.

If the new technology changes the game to a point where it gives some players an unfair advantage or gets away from how the sport is meant to be played, then that new technology shouldn’t be used.

The first part of my reasoning is much more definitive than the second.

A perfect example would be the recent banning of a specific type of groove used on golf clubs in the PGA Tour.  The groove gave certain players much more control and spin on shots than players who used a more standard club face.  The new grooves took the skill required by golfers to make shots out of the equation and officials made the correct decision to ban it from the game.

The second is more subjective and could vary depending on who you ask.

For me, the CITRUS ball would never feel right on the soccer field.  The weight and feel of the ball are very important and I don’t think a ball without air could ever attain the same qualities as a ball with air.

I can compare it to what happened in the NBA when it switched from real leather balls to a synthetic.  Players hated the new ball.  They complained of it slipping off their hands and soon the league decided to switch back to genuine leather.

Now more than ever, new systems and advancements are going to be made every year.  League officials and players need to work together to decide what changes need to made and what things should stay the same.  Hopefully these changes don’t take anything away from sports we love, but instead add to them.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Mar 28 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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