15 May 2009FIFA prevents goal-line technology introduction

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance | Football Technology and Stadia

FIFA has foiled a move which could have seen goal-line technology introduced into Scottish football, it has been revealed.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) has been considering using microchips inside match balls to tell whether a ball has crossed the line for some time.

And the decision was brought back to the forefronts of everyone's minds when Rangers had a goal controversially disallowed recently against Hibernian.

However, SFA chief executive Gordon Smith has stated that the move to introduce the technology was challenged by FIFA.

He said: "The issue of goal-line technology was on the agenda at the first International Football Association Board meeting I attended last year.

"But, as soon as we had a vote on it, right away the four FIFA delegates lined up against it. I couldn't believe it because the system seemed 100 per cent infallible to me."

He added that he believed officials would be open to the idea of wearing a watch that could tell if a ball had wholly crossed the line by reading the chip.

The Football Association was supposedly 'willing to consider' bringing in goal-line technology in 2005 after Tottenham Hotspur were disallowed a goal against Manchester United despite replays showing the whole ball had clearly crossed the line.

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