by Jorge Moran, FoxSoccer.com

Many argue that the implementation of such technology will merely bring the 'Beautiful Game' into the 21st century. It has worked and continues work for other sports, so why not football?

Because football is not like any of those other sports; and because it would kill the sport that we know and love.

It seems that no full slate of games can be played in England without a new controversy adding fuel to the ever-intensifying fire that is this topic. The issue has picked up such unprecedented amounts of momentum this early in the season that the era of goal-line technology and video evidence appears inevitable.

The 'phantom goal' in the Championship game between Watford and Reading; Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty dive against Bolton; Robin van Persie's disallowed goal at Sunderland this past weekend, to name but a few. These are all poor refereeing decisions that have prevented the issue from cooling off among supporters and pundits alike.

Plain and simple, the referees got it wrong in all three instances. End of story. It's not the end of the world.

It's not as if bizarre cases like that of Reading's 'goal that never was' at Vicarage Road happen more than once in a lifetime.

There is nothing amoral about debatable calls. Human error plays a large part in both sides of the game. In any given match, players will commit many more outcome-defining mistakes than referees.

While it's true that it's the players and not the referees that are being paid to define the outcome of a game, match officials invariably do, even when their calls are correct.

Premier League Photos

Photos

• Premiership Action, May 24
• Premiership Action, May 16-17

League Pages

• Front | Scores | Standings | Photos

But if video evidence is introduced into the game, why stop at the referee's mistakes? Why not call for a replay every time Nicolas Anelka misses a sitter, and assess whether or not Didier Drogba would have sent the same cross into Row Z or put it past the 'keeper?

The fact is that for every ill-placed pass that Steven Gerrard sends over Fernando Torres' head, there is a moment of undeniable brilliance from the England midfielder. His 100th Liverpool goal in the Champions League last week is a perfect example. As the cliché goes, one must take the good with the bad.

A seldom discussed yet more worrying aspect of the possible introduction of video evidence is that it would splinter the sport into two factions: the football practiced by those clubs and countries that can afford to have the technology installed and maintained, and the football of those that can't.

HawkEye, the camera-based goal-line technology that the Premier League tested but was unable to receive FIFA approval to use, would cost a reported $438,000 to install per stadium. Only a very small handful of national federations and leagues would be able to afford that, and perhaps only at the top flight level.

Who's to say that a country's lower leagues aren't worthy enough to receive the same sort of sporting justice that video evidence would bring to the upper tier? Teams from the lower divisions may be less profitable, but they are just as important to their supporters.

Anything less than uniformity in bringing forth more valid results to football would constitute a betrayal of the beautiful simplicity for which the game is loved worldwide.

What's more, football with stoppages for replays and goal-line video inspections would not even be the same sport. The newly-created natural breaks in the game would please TV broadcasters by increasing ad revenue, but it would destroy the quality of the football.

The breakneck pace and swift counterattacks that are among the admired trademarks of the Premiership could be lost in the misguided search for refereeing perfection.

There's irony in the fact that England is at the forefront of the push for this innovation. The Three Lions might not have their only World Cup title had similar technology been in place when Geoff Hurst's shot rebounded off the crossbar and down onto the West Germany goal-line at the 1966 final.

The referee's decision to allow the goal created endless debate, in an era when debate was an acceptable part of the 'Beautiful Game'.

Fox Soccer Channel's Premier League and Fox Football Fone-in producer Jorge Moran writes about English and continental soccer for FoxSoccer.com.