Replay Delay

Once upon a time, many football seasons ago, Norwich City's Carrow Road ground had a wooden main grandstand, and at the top of a mountain range of wooden steps, an enclosed wooden Press box. It resembled a garden shed with large windows. Inside, there were benches, and shelves, on which we media folk rested our notebooks. The only available technology was a cluster of wired-in telephones with dials protected by padlocks. Our phone, however, also had a little handle. Lift the phone and crank the handle and a bell rang in the copy typist's room at either Redwell Street or Prospect House, depending on whether it was the 1960s or the 1970s.
The view from the Press box was mixed. It was high and it was central, overlooking the centre line, but if fans on the wooden benches in front of the windows actually stood up, then there was no view at all. Thus it was occasionally difficult to work out who had scored. The anguished cry was, 'Who got that one?' Was it Allcock? Did Bolland get a touch? Was Bryceland's shot deflected? On those occasions we took a vote. Democracy prevailed.
Which brings me to filmed replays, on TVs, on screens at the ground, and in Press boxes.
Replays are loved by various categories of people. TV producers relish them because they drive controversy and give sofa pundits something to argue about. Managers like them because they offer an opportunity to slag off referees and officials if and when. And the written and spoken media love them for similar reasons. A 'was he or wasn't he off-side' row can be kept bubbling for days.
However, I am constantly dismayed when I hear a commentator or pundit say, 'I've looked at that incident 17 times from 15 different angles, and I'm still not sure if the ref got it right.' Poor ref. Poor linesman (or whatever they call them now). But the matter is irrelevant, anyway. So I am always slightly heartened when Radio Norfolk commentators, for example, find the need to say, 'Oh, the replay screens have gone down!' Good, I think.
Personally, I don't think instant TV replays are good for the game and they are certainly not good for pressured match officials who, after all, still get something like 95% of their decisions right. On the other hand, replays cannot be banned completely because it is too easy to film them.
It does seem to me that football needs instant TV replays like it needs a close association with the betting industry (surely the next big scandal to hit the game), and like it needs a hole in the head. Might it be possible, therefore, to ban the screening of match incident replays (to crowds, management, and media) until one or preferably two hours after the game has finished? Such a move might water down controversy to a point where it would take some of the heat off the officials.
After all, when the whistle's gone, its gone.