A football classic with the stamp of farce

Football is a multibillion-pound industry without the wit to devise a system that would identify a stamp by Player A on the ankle of Player B right in front of the fourth official.

Thus it was that Diego Costa was able to stand on Emre Can and add to the bad blood between two clubs.

Chelsea versus Liverpool is a fixture with in-built friction.

Tuesday's League Cup semifinal second leg, which Chelsea won 1-0, was everything supporters would want it to be: fast, feisty and fun. But the 120 minutes were shaped by three officiating errors .

At the heart of the opening exchanges was a farce that distorted a major sporting event and allowed Costa to stay on the pitch for 108 minutes after he had committed a clear red-card offence.

After Can slid in on the Chelsea striker, Costa stamped on the Liverpool defender's ankle before trotting away. A melee ensued.

Fourth official Phil Dowd was evidently too distracted to see a serious offence right under his nose. Play resumed, with Costa free to dive minutes later and then be denied a clear penalty when Martin Skrtel brought him down in the box.

You can see the chain of events here: Costa is not sent off but is then denied a penalty. What are the chances of referee Michael Oliver and his assistants trying to correct their error over the stamp by refusing to grant Costa a spot kick? We cannot know that this was their logic, but the subliminal temptation was there.

Later, Henderson killed a Chelsea move by stretching out his arm to stop a through-ball when he was already on a caution. Like Costa, Henderson should have been back in the changing room.

All because football has embraced technology at a speed a Luddite would consider tardy.