By James Crook

145589790February 19 - FIFA have announced today that goal-line technology (GLT) will be introduced for the 2014 World Cup, as well as this year's Confederations Cup, both to be hosted in Brazil. 


The much-discussed goal-line technology has already been tested at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan last year and featured at Wembley Stadium for England's World Cup warm-up win over Belgium last June.

FIFA has invited tenders to provide the system, with the Sony-owned Hawkeye system, which is already implemented in tennis and cricket amongst other sports, likely to see its main competition in the GoalRef system, as these are the only systems currently approved by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

"After a successful implementation of Goal-Line Technology (GLT) at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December 2012, FIFA has decided to use GLT at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 and 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil." said a statement from FIFA

"The aim is to use GLT in order to support the match officials and to install a system in all stadia, pending the successful installation, and pre-match referee tests.

"With different technologies on the market, FIFA has launched a tender today, setting out the technical requirements for the two forthcoming competitions in Brazil."

102460031Frank Lampard's shot, which replays show clearly crossed the line, at the 2010 World Cup against Germany, which was not given as a goal 

GLT will provide support to officials with the ability to confirm whether a ball has or has not crossed the goal-line completely.

The subject has been highly controversial in recent years, especially in the immediate aftermath of England's World Cup defeat to Germany in 2010 when Frank Lampard's shot, which would have equalised for England, was not allowed, despite clearly crossing the line.

The two approved systems, Hawkeye and Goalref use vastly different technologies in order to confirm whether a goal has been scored or not.

Hawkeye uses a series of high frame-rate cameras to determine whether a ball has fully crossed the line, and would most likely be implemented as a referral system if successful.

Goalref, which has been tested in the Danish Superliga, consists of a magnetic field around the goal, supplemented by plastic-coated antennas placed inside the goal, which is linked to software which sends an alert to the referee's wristwatch when it detects that the copper coils placed inside the ball completely cross the line.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2012: Goal-line technology money could be better spent, insists Platini
December 2012: Andrew Warshaw - The global clamour for goal-line technology is finally bearing fruit
December 2012: FIFA welcomes introduction of goal-line technology