Friday 18 April 2014

The Importance Of Linesman Tools

By Essie Osborn


A linesman is like a sectary of an office assistant but in a good way. In field sport linemen contribute a huge role in the good officiating and smooth flow of the matches that take place. This is the desire of stakeholders of any given sport, be it players, coaches, fanatics or even the owners of teams. A lot goose on it team sport as this attracts a lot of attention in terms of numbers and following. With this comes huge responsibilities that are given to a few. For the chosen few to carry out this they need good linesman tools.

This is a variety of tools that are out in the market and depend on the type of sport that a particular linesman is in. The field sports that have the position of a linesman are football in this sense, soccer, American Football and finally Rugby. Rugby is the father of the other two sports. Ironically, it is the least popular of the three. Soccer being the first in terms of global following. The tools used are of a variety they include: watches flags, whistles, boots, jerseys, and earpiece sets for communication.

Back in history, 1986 Soccer World cup. Diego Maradona, the best soccer player at that time did the most controversial thing ever. He scored a goal, through handball, against the English team a matter that till date has never left the tongues of many. This simple incident could have been easily avoided if the linesmen had the skills, tools and technological advancements that their counterparts of today have.

A handball to those uninformed is a foul in the Football scenario where a player handles the ball using the arm, which is an offense. Mistakes like this could be prevented, matter of fact they are now, due to the lack of tools, technology and good match officiating.

The best, according to the level of match officiating ought to be English Premier League linesmen. This is simply because they have embraced science and technology in sport. They use sophisticated but yet simple to use tools. They use earpiece technology, the tradition flags, and jerseys to distinguish them from the players. The league has also equipped match officials with off field equipment including goal line technology to detect more than half of balls passing the goal line and minute boards that are easily visible for time purposes.

The need for flags in field sport is vital. Flags communicate a language the referee and players involved understand. It would be tedious to shout to the referee as a way to communicate or send a message to him. This has eased this process. Linesmen however are well trained in this and have confirmed that a flag is the effective in match officiating.

Earpiece on the other hand have acted like mobile phone in the field. It is easier to call someone who is far than shouting. The earpiece in this case entail both the shouting and easy accessing of a referee from a linesman and vice versa. Linesman as assistants can seek further clarity from the other officials and in turn a true judgment is made before the whistle is blown.

This tools have prevented match officiating mistakes and misjudgments that over the years have led to stakeholders questioning the legibility of the governing bodies in regards to the various sports.




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