Blatter apologises to England and does U-turn over technology

June 29 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured) has apologised to the Football Association over Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany, he revealed today.

And in what could be a possible history-making climbdown the he said world football’s governing body “will naturally take on board the discussion on technology and will have the first opportunity to discuss this in July at the business meeting of the International FA Board”.

Blatter expressed his sorrow for the refereeing mistakes that have blighted the World Cup, including Lampard’s disallowed goal against Germany and Carlos Tevez’s opener for Argentina in their 3-1 win over Mexico, which appeared to be offside.

Lampard’s 39th-minute effort clipped the German crossbar and bounced a good foot over the line, only for Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda to allow play to continue while a big screen replay of Tevez goal sparked protest from the Mexican players.

Responding to the furore over the weekend’s events Blatter said: “It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goalline technology.

“I deplore when you see the evident referees’ mistakes.

“It has not been a five-star game for referees.

“I am distressed by the evident referees’ mistakes.”

The FIFA President also revealed he had apologised to the football associations of England and Mexico over the matter.

He said: ”The only thing I can do is yesterday [Monday] I have spoken to the two federations [England and Mexico] directly concerned by referees’ mistakes.

“The English said, ‘Thank you’ and accepted that you can win [some] and you lose [some], and the Mexicans bowed their heads and accepted it.”

But if technology is introduced it will be in a very limited form, Blatter warned.

He said: ”The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goal-line technology.

“Football is a game that never stops and the moment there was a discussion if the ball was in or out, or there was a goal-scoring opportunity, do we give a possibility to a team to call for replays once or twice like in tennis?

“For situations like the Mexico game you don’t need technology.”

The potential U-turn nevertheless marks a considerable change in FIFA’s stance against the use of video technology – with Blatter one of the major and most influential opponents to the idea.

Blatter believes that introducing technology would take away the human element of the game.

But with pressure mounting it now looks like football will join other sports such as rugby and tennis in dragging itself into the 21st century.