Football embraces technology

Last week, FIFA president Sepp Blatter made amends for ignoring goal-line technology after seeing Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany in 2010 World Cup turned down.

Football was always considered to be stuck in the dark ages while other sports embraced technology. So, after nine months of testing in England, Germany, Hungary and Italy, FIFA decided to introduce the Goal-Line Technology (GLT). A staunch denier of the virtues of goal-line technology, it was a bit of a surprise to see the FIFA boss finally acknowledge the ‘injustice’ done to Lampard and, more recently, to Ukraine’s Marko Devic whose equaliser against England in Euro 2012 was disallowed.

Everybody watched. Even John Terry should believe, from the bottom of his heart, that he had hooked the ball behind the goal-line. Even the TV replays showed that a legitimate goal was disallowed. The referee’s goal-line assistant was right on the spot but somehow failed to spot the ball.

Play continued and England booked a quarterfinal berth with a 1-0 win.

FIFA’s law-making body — International Football Association Board (IFAB) — also approved the implementation of additional assistant referees (AAR) following a two-year experiment in the Champions League, Euro 2012 as well as the competitions in Qatar, Brazil, France and Morocco.

Both Hawk-Eye — the 3D tracking system now widely used in both tennis and cricket — and GoalRef — which works by putting a chip inside the ball — will be implemented at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan this December for a cost of $200,000 (£130,000) for one system which will be installed in each of the two stadiums.

While the GLT may take some time to come into force in all FIFA member associations, the AAR was successfully used by the professional Qatar Stars League (QSL) last season.

Following FIFA’s historic decisions, I’m sure, one gentleman in India will be really happy.

Churchill Brothers’ big boss Alemao Churchill always had this uncanny habit of complaining about referees whenever his team lost points. He would often grumble about lack of quality match officials so much so that he became a butt of ridicule in the AIFF meetings. But the Goan minister will have to wait before GLT and AAR is implemented in Indian football, which definitely is not strong financially.

After all, Hawk-Eye is a costly affair. And, I don’t think anybody in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) would be bold enough to introduce it soon. But, as an experimental measure, AIFF can try additional assistant referees in smaller events before the I-League.