World football fans around the globe received great news last week when FIFA announced it had approved the use of goal-line technology for future tournaments. This means that the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be the first-ever World Cup tournament with goal-line technology. Besides that UEFA has to take a decision so the Champions League and European Championship competitions to use this wonderful technology. Also Premier League Clubs requested IFAB the permission to use this technology next season, the installation cost would be around £150,000 per stadium.
Over the last few years we could see many times teams who have been negatively affected by referees making the wrong decisions when there was the question whether the ball crossed the goal line or not. Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter is now a firm supporter of goal-line technology, having changed his mind after Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal for England against Germany in the 2010 World Cup. The clamor increased last month after Ukraine’s disallowed goal against England.
Many other sports use this instant replay technology, so now the time has come for football to use the Hawk-Eye system – developed by a British company now owned by Sony – which uses six cameras on each goal to track the ball and can send a signal to the referee’s watch within one second of an incident. The other technology that will be used is GoalRef, developed in Germany, this one uses a microchip implanted in the ball and the use of low magnetic waves around the goal to also provide a signal to the referee within one second.