Is video technology used in the NFL (or other 'American' games )? That is, do the officials have access to slow motion and multi- angle recording of the action, to help them in decisions?

We have it in cricket, where the two umpires may call to a third umpire to make a ruling.He sits up in the stands and has all the technology to see replays on screen.Play is halted and his answer is shown, to cheers or groans, on the big screens for the spectators. We have it in rugby,for a fourth official to rule on such matters as whether a try has been scored and whether a player has stepped on or over the sidelines.

Unfortunately, soccer's authorities refuse to have it. The result is that every fan at home, having the benefit of multi-angle and slow motion taping, can see that the referee and linesmen have made a blatant mistake but the mistake stands The fans in the stadium are deprived of it. There the authorities allow replays of goals and other highlights but nothing controversial, or possibly so, is permitted to be shown.If a goal is disallowed for offside they don't see the replay, unlike the fans watching the game live at home.

Fred, I can't believe we have let your question sit for so long.

The National Football League has used video since 1999 when rulings made on the field are challenged by coaches. Each team is limited in its number of challenges, and a challenge that only confirms the original ruling costs the team one of its timeouts.

The National Hockey League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball also use video to varying degrees.

OK, 'fuse, it was worth waiting ! [At around the same time, I asked who the officials and coaches were wired up to by radio and what information they gave and received ]

The absence of this facility in soccer is scandalous. It's hard to imagine a more reactionary body than FIFA, the world governing body.They spend their time inventing silly offences e.g. a player who removes his shirt when celebrating a goal is yellow carded (five yellows means a ban for three games, two yellows in the same game means dismissal for the rest of it ). Meanwhile, the absence of video last season once allowed a 'goal' to stand when the ball had been passed from over a metre off the field of play.Naturally, this not being cricket, the 'scoring team' did not do the gentlemanly thing and agree with the protesters.(Bit unfair that: this season one team's manager told his players to deliberately gift a goal because he saw that his own team had acted unfairly in scoring one )