And after the officiating controversy in our game it was interesting to see yesterday's games provide more of the same. Mark Halsey in the Wolves v Sp*rs game was a disgrace, and how Carragher and Rafael didn't get red cards is beyond me. Both of those challenges were reckless, dangerous and might have caused serious, serious injury. I know Nani ended up with a cut leg but it could easily have been a lot worse. Given the fact Phil Dowd let Carragher off with a yellow he could hardly send Rafael off.

The vagaries of the system say that because the referee saw and dealt with both these incidents at the time no further action can be taken. All that does is prove, once again, that the system is deeply flawed. How often do we hear 'Referees are human, they will make mistakes'? So why do we treat their decisions as if they were infallible? Why can we not look at incidents after a game and say that the referee got it wrong? Does it undermine the ref? No, it simply says that with the benefit of hindsight and replays, we have a better view of what went on. That we can make a more informed decision than the man on the pitch can as he's operating under constraint.

He has to make his mind up in seconds, he's got one view, one angle. We have dozens. Afterwards we have time to look at what happened more closely and, if necessary, dish out a more appropriate punishment. Jamie Carragher should miss at least 3 games. That was a red card offence all day long and here we are in a situation where everybody accepts that, including Liverpool fans, yet because the ref made a bad decision, a very bad decision, he gets away with it.

How are we supposed to cut out the dangerous tackling if something as stupid as this is allowed to happen? And don't buy the FA talking about FIFA rules preventing them from punishing players further. In France*, for example, a post-game panel can hand out punishment to a player even if a referee has seen something during a game, so why can't it be done in England? It's because the FA are too spineless to implement any changes which might take away from the perceived authority of the referee. The schoolmaster edict runs strong.

Maybe referees aren't any worse than they were before - although it seems standards this season have dropped considerably - but what's clear is that video technology is making them look worse. We can see in seconds if somebody is offside, if a ball has crossed the line, if a tackle is over the top, if a player has elbowed another in the head as he goes by, if anything off the ball has happened, who got the last touch for a disputed corner etc.

The blanket refusal to use this technology properly is making football look stupid. Especially when FIFA convene meetings to ban the rise of the snood, the greatest threat to the sport for years and years. And as long as they do goals will be wrongly disallowed, points lost, and horrendous challenges like Carragher's, like Rafael's, like Shawcross's, will be unpunished and because of that they'll put players in danger. At least nobody's neck will be excessively warm though, that's the main thing.