The Cost Paid in Flow and Feel
Precision has a price and it is paid in the texture of the game. A goal that gets checked is celebrated provisionally, and crowds learn to hold something back. Even a fast check inserts a pause between an event and its meaning, and that pause changes what watching football feels like, independent of whether the eventual answer is right.
The binary nature of the rule sharpens the discomfort. Because the line is a line, the margin between a legal goal and a disallowed one can be smaller than anything a spectator could ever perceive, so the sport ends up cancelling goals for reasons that are technically sound and emotionally unpersuasive. Both sides have adapted. Defenders hold higher, flatter lines with more confidence that marginal calls will be measured rather than guessed. Attackers time runs later and start deeper. The technology does not only correct decisions, it reshapes how teams position themselves before any decision is needed.
