Collina still against use of goalline technology

Uefa referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina leapt to the defence of the additional assistant referee experiment after Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared Ukraine’s European Championship defeat to England made goalline technology “a necessity”.

The Euro 2012 co-hosts were denied an equaliser in Tuesday night’s decisive 1-0 Group D loss in Donetsk when officials failed to spot Marko Devic’s shot had crossed the line.

Blatter, who hopes to convince the game’s rule-makers — the International Football Association Board (IFAB) — to give technology the green light, posted on Twitter: “After last night’s match GLT [goalline technology] is no longer an alternative but a necessity.”