By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 8 – When football’s lawmakers rubber-stamped the long-overdue introduction of goalline technology last week, it hardly made global sporting headlines.
Already last year the International FA Board had decided, after several false dawns, that it was time football took a giant leap into the 21st century and went the same way as sports like tennis, rugby and cricket.
This time, at their latest meeting in Edinburgh, the IFAB simply presented an update on the Club World Cup in Japan where, a couple of months ago, goalline technology was finally used for the first time in official competition.
Besides, FIFA president Sepp Blatter had already assured the watching world that technology would be in place at this coming summer’s Confederations Cup and, more importantly, at next year’s World Cup in Brazil. And both the English FA and the Premier League had likewise made it clear that they planned to use one system or another next season.
But tucked away in the small print there were some significant nuances. Competition organisers are to be permitted to decide for themselves whether to allow replays of goalline incidents on giant screens. Even more eye-catching and potentially far-reaching than that was a move to give each tournament the autonomy to choose which matches would use technology, and which wouldn’t.
Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan said: “If goal-line technology exists in a stadium, there is no advantage to one side or the other and therefore if the technology exists and it has been switched on and agreed by the competition organisers then there is no reason why it can’t be used. If it has been approved it will then be up to the individual club in consultation with the organisers or their league body to decide if it can be used.”
On paper, this may not seem that big a deal but influential voices were hinting in Edinburgh at an important hidden agenda. Imagine the following theoretical scenario. Next season, Manchester United use goalline technology in an FA Cup tie against minor opposition. Three or four days later, they are drawn against a tough adversary in the Champions League but, because of Michel Platini’s blanket refusal to adopt technology in UEFA competitions, find themselves having to ditch the system for a far more important fixture. Doesn’t quite make sense, does it?
IFAB insiders privately hope that UEFA will recognise such inconsistency and that eventually they will give ground, allow those who can afford it – both at national and club level – to install technology and accept greater flexibility. Platini, at every turn, is beating the drum in favour of his beloved alternative system of employing two extra officials – human eyes over science, as he puts it – while stressing to all who will listen what a waste of money it would be to apply goalline technology to his competitions when instances of it being needed are few and far between.
But now that IFAB has ruled that GLT can be used on a selective basis, a giant spanner has been thrown into the works. With four systems now licensed for judging whether the ball has crossed the line – two camera-based and two using magnetic fields (the latest is GoalControl-4D) – the competition will be fierce but after all the initial excitement has died down, the price will come down too. And as it does, so more and more clubs throughout Europe will become interested.
Just like his determination to have the 2022 Qatar World Cup played in winter, so Platini appears to be a lone anti-technology voice among the heads of football’s six global confederations. CONCACAF, according to its president Jeffrey Webb, says his grouping is already considering utilising goal-line technology at the Gold Cup this coming summer.
Platini can keep refusing but he will surely be mindful of how Blatter, for ages a staunch opponent of GLT, changed his mind after England’s Frank Lampard was denied a goal against Germany at the 2010 World Cup, seen by everyone in the stadium except the referee and linesmen. In other words, by every set of human eyes apart from those that matter.
The furore that followed forced Blatter to hold his hands up and bow to public pressure. A majority of clubs, players, fans – and even the referees themselves – have long been pushing for technology but until last year the IFAB repeatedly stepped back from the brink. Lawmakers are now convinced, however, that the four methods to have undergone rigourous testing are foolproof and can transmit within one second whether a goal has been scored without holding up play.
As things stand now, three of the four British associations who make up IFAB along with FIFA cannot afford technology. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland simply don’t have the funds. But Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Welsh FA, which once voted against technology, now recognises that its progress is inevitable. “The decision we made is that there is no compulsion to use it, nor is there any prohibition,” he said. “So we are opening up GLT to be used by competition organisers throughout the world if they think it is valuable and relevant for their competition.”
Jerome Valcke, FIFA’s general secretary, disputes the astronomical figures Platini has mentioned for installing technology and says it will be much more affordable. “It will never reach the amounts he is talking about,” declared Valcke. “I know because we have the figures. But of course UEFA is free to do what it wants.”
Later this month, the four systems vying for supremacy have been invited to Brazil to check out the venues being used for the Confederations Cup. After that, April 2 becomes the next ground-breaking date. That’s when FIFA will, in all likelihood, decide which company to use at the World Cup itself. “We’ll look at the four of them and decide which is the best,” said Valcke. It promises to be a landmark moment for the future of the game – if not for the diehard traditionalists.