Following the furore over that Frank Lampard “goal” against Germany, there has been renewed call for Fifa to introduce widescale goal line technology. Even though the ball quite clearly crossed the line, the referee and linesmen somehow failed to spot it and with the equialiser failing to count, England went on to get hammered by the Germans. The question of whether goal line technology should be used in football is a long running and contentious issue but despite Sepp Blatter’s announcement during the World Cup finals that the technology would be discussed at the next opportunity it wasn’t.
October is the expected date when the technology will hit the headlines again, although chances are reasonable that Blatter and Fifa will once again decide that it’s too expensive or dress it up and claim that it is to do with the flow of the game. While there have been sensible suggestions of digging out a slope behind the goal line until something is done, the debate will continue – maybe Fifa should take a leaf out of the NFL’s books.
The NFL is considering adding some serious tech to its game. Cairos Technologies develops magnetic field chips and believes that placing a small microchip inside the ball would mean no errors when it comes to deciding whether the ball really has crossed the line (or whatever happens in NFL).
Similar technology is unlikely to be introduced by Fifa, after all imagine the cost of that and imagine what Ronaldo would be able to do with his free kicks then. However, the fact that the NFL is even willing to consider such a move in order to cut down on possible errors and costly mistakes should be seen as a positive note and one that Fifa could well benefit from following.
Will Fifa introduce goal line technology?
Will the NFL use microchips in their balls?
