Goal-Line Technology to be First Used in December
With no small part played by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s lawmakers, finally answered the calls for goal-line technology. At the meeting in Zurich, the IFAB members gave the green light to two of the proposed systems: Hawk-Eye and GoalRef.
The fact that there are two competing systems that have been approved should help keep costs down, but smaller clubs are worried about how they will afford to implement the technology.
Hawk-Eye is a system that is already familiar to fans of tennis and cricket. It uses a system of six high speed cameras that can accurately triangulate the position of the ball, with a margin of error of 3.6 millimetres. If the ball crosses the line, that information is sent to the referee’s wristwatch via an encrypted radio signal within one second.
GoalRef features a magnetic field on and behind the goal-line, with a corresponding microchip implanted in the ball itself. If there is any change in the magnetic field the chip reports it back to the referee, again within one second as per the requirements of the IFAB.
There were other contenders in the running. Cairos GLT also used a magnetic field and a sensor suspended inside the ball. It proposed having a grid of thin electrical wires buried in the penalty box and behind the goal-line. The sensor measures the magnetic grid and sends information to a computer which decides whether or not the ball has crossed the line, relaying the information to the referee.
Goalminder is a simpler system. This has high speed cameras built into the posts and crossbar recording 2000 frames per second. The referee makes his decision based on visual evidence, which is relayed to him within 5 seconds, rather than the decision being made for him.
It was decided that goal-line technology would be first used in the World Club Cup which is being held in Japan, this December. A competition featuring the current European Champions Chelsea. There is an irony that won’t be lost on Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard; it was as an England player that one of the most obvious goals ever to be ruled-out was taken from him by the officials in the match against Germany, in Bloemfontein during the 2010 World Cup.
When Marko Devich of Ukraine had a much less obvious goal ruled out, playing against England in the recent European Championships, Sepp Blatter immediately tweeted his support for goal-line technology. He was noticeably much quieter after Lampard’s goal was dismissed two years before.
The technology, if it had been in place at Euro 2012, would have caused an injustice if the referee had given the goal because it wouldn’t have shown that Artem Milevskiy was offside when the ball was played to him in the build-up.
Michel Platini of UEFA has admitted scepticism of the use of technology in football. He advocates the use of the “fifth official”, another referee’s assistant behind the goal-line. It should be noted though, in the match between Ukraine and England there was a “fifth official”, yet he failed to spot the ball had crossed the line or that there was an offside.
Platini believes that the game is on a technological slippery slope. With the introduction of goal-line technology, how long will it be before there are calls for more systems to be put in place? For instance: video replays of tackles, video evidence of offsides; all interrupting the flow of play.
Human error can cost clubs millions of pounds in lost revenue if a bad decision causes relegation, or missing out on participation of cup competitions or European football. Yet what makes this game of ours so special is the amount of debate it instigates amongst its fans. Technology can take that element out of the game and it would be a little less special because of it.
