Fifa, the world football governing body, has decided to “discuss goal-line technology” in a meeting of the International Football Association Rules Board next month. The controversial events at the on-going World Cup have compelled football’s bosses to soften their protracted resistance to technological aids.
England were denied a perfectly legal goal against Germany on Monday and a few hours later, Carlos Tevez put Argentina ahead from an off-side position against Mexico. Fifa’s U-turn wasn’t surprising after Monday’s refereeing mistakes had prompted feverish calls all over the world for some concrete action from the governing body.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who had always been a staunch opponent of technological invasion into the game, told a press conference on Tuesday “it would be nonsense to not re-open the file of technology at the next business meeting of the IFAR Board after the experience so far in this World Cup.” Blatter also revealed that he has apologised to the federations of England and Mexico for the mistakes of the referees.
But the Fifa boss ruled out any deliberations on video replays when his attention was drawn to the off-side goal of Tevez.
“We are only going to discuss the goal-line technology. For situations like the Mexico game you don’t need technology,” he clarified. Fifa fears that the introduction of video replays to adjudge debatable off-sides would evoke calls to review every decision on the field, besides slowing down the game.
Blatter’s nod for a discussion on goal-line technology is vital because it ensures the support of Fifa’s four members at the IFAR Board meeting.
The eight-member IFAR Board has four representatives from home nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and any rule change requires a three-fourths majority.
Curiously, the home associations aren’t united on the issue.
While the FA of England has always been in favour of goal-line technology, the Football Association of Wales has consistently opposed efforts to alter the rules of the game.
Meanwhile, two goal-line technology firms __ Cairo and HawkEye __ are bracing up to present their wares at the IFAR Board meeting. German-based Cairo uses a microchip on the ball to clear goal-line doubts while British company HawkEye, whose technique is used in tennis and cricket, relies on multiple cameras to decide whether the ball has crossed the goal-line or not.
It’s ironic that there will be an off-field tussle between Germany and England as a result of a World Cup match involving the same countries.
Dr Paul Hawkins, the inventor of HawkEye, is quoted as saying that his system has the tools to end goal-line controversies forever. He has stated that a goal-line doubt can be cleared within 0.5 seconds of the incident.