October 25 – Football’s lawmakers have sought to tighten up the accuracy of goalline technology, coincidentally following the latest controversy when Bayer Leverkusen’s Stefen Kiessling was awarded a goal even though his effort had entered through the side netting.
Germany has not yet embraced goalline technology, unlike the Premier League in England, and are one of many countries who are still to be convinced it is 100% reliable.
Now, the annual business meeting of the law-making International Football Association Board has approved changes to the new 2014 Testing Manual, including a higher standard of a 1.5cm margin of error for the accuracy of GLT systems. Previously, in the 2012 Testing Manual, the maximum margin of error for the systems was +/-3cm.
The changes were based primarily on FIFA’s experience of using technology at the 2012 Club World Cup and this year’s Confederations Cup, as well as the feedback provided by the Premier League who have been using it since the start of the current season.
The new manual will come into force in April 2014 with a transition period of six months in which new installations can be tested.
Another key item on the agenda was the IFAB reform process, part of FIFA’s general governance programme. Discussions centred on the composition of two new advisory panels that were approved at the main IFAB annual meeting in March – a Technical Panel and a Football Panel that will include different stakeholder groups from across the world.
Whilst the IFAB composition will remain unchanged – notably the four British associations and FIFA – the new advisory panels aim to improve the consultative process and foster a more proactive approach with a wider group of representatives able to bring new ideas to the table.
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