England got their "just desserts" claims Welsh boss who voted against goalline technology

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

June 28 – Wales, one of only four countries in the world that can decide whether goalline technology is introduced to avoid controversies like the one that has overshadowed Germany’s victory in the World Cup over England, said again today they were against it.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) backed their decision in March to vote against the introduction of technology for the World Cup in South Africa.

Jonathan Ford, the chief executive of the FAW, told the BBC: ”I’m not overly sure that goal-line technology or technology in football is the way forward.”

Wales - along with England, Northern Ireland and Scotland – form the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that decides on changes to the laws of the games.

They sit as the sport’s pioneering football associations along with world governing body FIFA to vote on major changes.

When the subject of technology was discussed in March only England and Scotland backed its introduction.

But Ford has claimed that the incident, when Frank Lampard’s long-range shot crossed the line which would have made it 2-2 if it had not been ruled out, did not matter in the end.

He said: ”By conceding four goals I don’t think England were really in any position that they were going to be pursuing World Cup dreams and actually going through to the final.

“I do think their performance, unfortunately, was sorrily lacking and I think they probably got their just desserts, myself.

“And what if in [the] 1966 [World Cup final] the goal wasn’t allowed?

“I suppose you absolutely can talk about it – that’s one of the beauties of football is the fact that we end up talking about it.

“But goal-line technology, it’s a very tough subject to talk about and I remember when I was part of the International Football Association board meeting that we had back in March this topic came up.

“But it wasn’t a topic just about goal-line technology, it was a topic about technology in football and that’s the bigger question, that’s the question you’ve really got to ask yourself.

“Is football really ready to embrace that full technology?

“If you start the goal-line technology where do you end?

“Surely if you saw the Argentina v Mexico match a little later that same day the first goal was clearly offside.

“Well hang on, that shouldn’t be allowed and naturally the technology is around for us to pinpoint exactly where players are on the pitch.

“Chips is shirts is a very common and easy thing for us to actually install, yet clearly that would make decisions about offside so much easier for the refs to have.

“Okay, so then you’ve got technology as far as offside is concerned, but then you can do replay technology and you can talk about throw-ins.

“Wales ourselves, our own national team has been penalised in the past where a throw-in has been incorrectly awarded and a goal has almost immediately been scored from that throw-in.

“Hang on, let’s take it back again?

“How far do you go with technology?

“That’s the debate you’ve got to ask yourself.”

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