World Cup finals may have goal-line technology

GOAL-LINE technology will be used in next year's World Cup finals if an experiment later this month proves successful, FIFA president Sepp Blatter insisted last night.

Four stadia are being fitted out with adidas' 'smartball' technology for the FIFA U17 world championships in Peru which will see the referee sent a signal every time the ball goes out of play or into the goal.

Delegates from the International Board will attend the tournament to monitor the experiment and a decision on introducing the system for the World Cup will be taken at a meeting in October.

Blatter said yesterday in London: "We will definitely use the technology in Germany next year if the experiment works in Peru.

"The International Board will attend that last week of the competition in Peru in order to see how the system works. We will then make a decision at a meeting in Zurich in October."

The tournament in Peru will see 32 matches played with the smartball system, where the ball contains a microchip which sends a signal whenever it passes over sensors in the touchline.

The referee is alerted by a device worn on his wrist and should then be in a position to make the correct decision.

The FA, one of the members of the International Board - the body which governs football's rules - have already indicated they will back efforts to bring in the technology in time for next year's World Cup in Germany.

The system should bring an end to controversies over goal-line decisions, such as the one in 1966 which helped England win the biggest prize in football.

Blatter added that FIFA were reluctant to go any further down the road to bringing in new technology. "This goal-line technology is enough. Football must keep its human face and must accept errors. If we start to make it too scientific this game will lose its fascination."

Meanwhile, Premiership transfer spending has risen to €420 million this year and lower league English clubs are increasingly reaping the financial benefits, a survey has shown.

Consultants Deloitte said just under half of 2005 spending went to overseas clubs compared with 60% last year and lower division English clubs received €73.3m from Premier League sides compared with €54.2m in 2004.

"There have been a greater number of clubs benefiting from this redistribution in 2005 compared to previous years," said Deloitte's Paul Rawnsley.

"Over a dozen Championship clubs have each benefited by at least £1m [€1.5]."

Transfer spending by Premier League clubs totalled €381.5m in 2004 and €367m in 2003, although expenditure totalled over €470m in 2001/2.

Spending by Premier League clubs is about double that of clubs in Italy's Serie A and Spain's Primera Liga.

Champions Chelsea, supported by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, were the biggest Premier League purchasers in the August window with deals worth a reported €82m, followed by Newcastle United with €56m and Liverpool at €28m.

"Looking forward, whilst we still think that the Premiership holds the strongest hand in the world transfer market, we expect that the level of transfer spending by Premiership clubs will be lower over the next year," said Deloitte's Dan Jones.