IFAB, the board that governs international football, has finally revealed that it’s members have reached a unanimous decision regarding the use of goal-line technology in professional fixtures, with the verdict now officially a ‘yes’.
Following IFAB’s approval, two different systems, GoalRef and Hawkeye will be tested to see which is the most suitable for football. Hawkeye has been a great success in tennis and golf, however there are doubts about it’s accuracy when it comes to football as it has had problems spotting the ball in situations where players are crowded in the box. According to IFAB representatives a system is set to be implemented as soon as possible, as the governing body’s members are keen to first see both in action.
“The Premier League has been a long term advocate of goal-line technology. We welcome today’s decision by IFAB and will engage in discussions with both Hawkeye and GoalRef in the near future with a view to introducing goal-line technology as soon as is practically possible .’”
England’s Premier League looks set to be the official testing zone for the new technology, an idea that excites FA general secretary Alex Horne and his peers.
“It is perfectly possible to introduce it halfway through the season. We have already got Hawk-Eye at Wembley, it needs to be calibrated and make sure it’s working properly and licensed so we are nearly there and we could turn Hawk-Eye on quite quickly.”
“The FA Cup would be our decision and we could say for the semi-finals and finals of the FA Cup we could turn it on, I don’t think that is a very controversial decision.”
Once the systems are perfected in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, FIFA’s Jerome Valcke says they could be used in tournaments like the Club World Cup and eventually the prestigious World Cup.
However, football supporters need not worry as their beloved sport won’t be turning into a technology-dependant sport any time soon, warns the IFAB.
“This approval is subject to a final installation test at each stadium before the systems can be used in ‘real’ football matches. The IFAB was keen to stress that technology will only be utilised for the goal-line and for no other areas of the game.”
How do you feel about this latest technology? Can it work or will it simply turn football into an annoyingly technological game?
About Danny
I think they should just go back to “the old days” with three referees, no technology.
Installing technology for deciding whether a goal is valid or not is just the beginning and I am sure that soon people will call for more technology in different situations, for example offside decisions.
I am sure that there are far more wrong offside calls that ruin goal scoring opportunities or calls that kill goals because the referee thought the player was offside.
so ehy not introducing some thechnology there? Besides, the much discussed goal at the EURO against England was only possible beacuse there was a wrong offside decision before. If the linesman had seen that the player was in fact offside, the goal would never have happened.
So as I said before, if you start to bring technology into football, it will probably lead to more and more technology or more absurd methods like the additional referees next to the goals…
so go back to one main referee and two linesmen. Wrong decisions have always been part of football, so deal with it.
If you really want to solve difficult decisions about whether the ball crossed the line or not, then just give the referee the possibility of watching the actual replay footage that we see when watching tv, then you don’t need any additional technology. Just show the replay footage and then make/correct the call.
I think you have a point there regarding a potential increase in the use of technology. It would ruin the sport, in my opinion. But perhaps your suggestion of allowing officials time to view match footage would slow down the game immensely as well.
Though this latest technology seems harmless, I agree that it will just lead to more application of systems that control every aspect of the game. If our beloved sport becomes another slow, televised sport, we may as well just stick to Playstation (only kidding).