Blatter apologises as FIFA to re-examine goal-line technology

FIFA president Sepp Blatter yesterday attempted to defuse the crisis over refereeing by apologising to England over Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal and performing an abrupt U-turn on goal-line technology.

Blatter woke yesterday to the headline in a Johannesburg newspaper trumpeting ‘Sepp Blunder’ over FIFA’s refusal to consider technology.

The result: apologies to England – and to Mexico over Carlos Tevez’s blatantly offside goal – and the announcement that goal-line technology will be considered again by the International FA Board, with the issue to be raised at the law-making body’s preliminary meeting in Cardiff next month. FIFA had ruled this out as recently as Saturday – the day before the controversy erupted with Lampard’s disallowed goal during England’s 4-1 defeat by Germany – but Blatter admitted there was little option but to make a U-turn.