FIFA Cancels Goal-Line Technology the Day Birmingham Prove It Is Needed

FIFA have today announced that they are ‘no longer pursuing’ goal-line technology, on the same day that Liam Ridgewell scored a legitimate goal that wasn’t given in Birmingham’s FA Cup tie with Portsmouth.

Ridgewell scored a close range header before David James clawed the ball back from over the line. The officials decided that the ball hadn’t completely crossed the line and so the goal was not awarded.

If television replays had been allowed to decide whether it was a goal, the matter could have been resolved in less than a minute.

Following the match, Birmingham manager Alex McLeish made another call for the introduction of technology, but the International Football Associations Board could only watch with mild embarrassment as, only hours before, they had made the decision to scrap further research into any technological developments.

FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke said after the decision, “Technology should not enter into the game, It was a clear statement made by the majority of the IFAB.

“Let’s keep the game of football as it is.”

Birmingham City fans clearly won’t agree after they saw their FA Cup dreams go up in smoke following another contentious decision that could have been cleared up by a quick television replay.

Football is one of the only major international sports not to use any kind of technology. Tennis uses hawk-eye challenges, whilst cricket, both codes of rugby, and athletics all employ some kind of video refereeing.

Yet football continues to dig its heels in resistance to a change which can only be for the improvement of the game.

Even this season, there have been many instances where a simple replay could have averted a disastrous and clearly wrong decision. Just ask the Republic of Ireland .

The main arguments against technology is that it could take too much time and that it would be difficult to decide where to implement technology. These can be easily rebuffed.

Replays have never been quicker—a decision could be verified in less than two minutes, hardly an unacceptable amount of time to get a crucial decision right.

It would also be relatively straightforward to implement a model based on tennis: each team could be allowed two incorrect challenges in the event of a contentious goal being allowed or disallowed.

It appears that FIFA have taken the easy way out rather than the sensible one. If the roles were reversed and Portsmouth were disallowed a goal that turned the tie against them, decisions like this could have ended up costing a club its livelihood.

It still might.

This article was written by Jon Naylor for Half Volley, the half sport, half science website.