Goal-line technology back on agenda

Football’s rule-makers the International FA Board (IFAB) yesterday agreed to reconsider the introduction of goal-line technology in the game.

IFAB – made up of FIFA and the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – said any system to be considered would have to confirm if a goal had been scored within one second.

The decision was taken at a meeting in Newport, South Wales and comes just seven months after IFAB had ruled out evaluating goal-line technology in the immediate future.

Calls for the introduction of goal-line technology were amplified after England midfielder Frank Lampard had a goal ruled out despite the ball clearly crossing the line in a last-16 match with Germany at last summer’s World Cup.

“The technology would apply solely to the goal-line, and only to determine whether a goal has been scored or not,” said IFAB in a statement.

“The system must be accurate; the indication of whether a goal has been scored must be immediate and automatically confirmed within one second; the indication of whether a goal has been scored will only be communicated to the match officials.”

IFAB also confirmed that independent companies would be approached to test the various systems. To date, 13 systems have been assessed by FIFA.

Any other companies wishing to making presentations to FIFA have until the end of November to do so, after which a testing period to determine the accuracy of each system will take place.

The results of the tests will be presented to IFAB’s annual general meeting on March 5, 2011.