Premier League set to be over the line before World Cup

The Premier League is on course to beat the World Cup to the punch by introducing goal-line technology next season.

FIFA yesterday confirmed that the technology would be used at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, eight months after football’s governing rules body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), had given the green light to its use in the sport.

At that time, the Football Association’s general secretary, Alex Horne, had speculated that the Premier League could introduce the technology even midway through the current season but that is now not going to happen. Instead, it’s looking increasingly likely that the Premier League will have goal-line technology installed and ready for use in its stadia by kick-off of the 2013/2014 season.

Responding to an inquiry from this newspaper yesterday, a spokesman said: “The Premier League has been a long-term advocate for goal-line technology. We have held discussions with FIFA-licensed providers with a view to introducing it as soon as is practically possible.”

In fact, the Premier League’s active support for the technology dates to as far back as seven years ago when they trialled it in “non-competitive” circumstances — a training environment — at Fulham’s Craven Cottage.

However, IFAB and FIFA were much slower on the uptake, and it wasn’t until the controversy surrounding Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ that wasn’t given, for England against Germany in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, that FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter finally came around to idea of goal-line technology as a necessity.

In a statement yesterday, FIFA said: “After a successful implementation of Goal-Line Technology (GLT) at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December 2012, FIFA has decided to use GLT at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

“The aim is to use GLT in order to support the match officials and to install a system in all stadia, pending the successful installation, and pre-match referee tests.

“With different technologies on the market, FIFA has launched a tender today, setting out the technical requirements for the two forthcoming competitions in Brazil.

“The two GLT providers already licensed under FIFA’s Quality Programme for GLT (Hawk-Eye and GoalRef), and other GLT providers currently in the licensing process (that must have passed all relevant tests as of today) are invited to submit tenders.

“Interested GLT companies will be invited to join an inspection visit to the Confederations Cup venues, currently scheduled for mid-March, with a final decision due to be confirmed in early April.”

It has been estimated that it will cost around €175,000 per stadium to install goal-line technology.

The prohibitive expense was cited by an FAI spokesman yesterday when, not surprisingly, he confirmed that there are no plans to introduce it in the domestic game.

But addressing the issue of cost last December, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke sounded a more optimistic note: “There will be additional companies coming on the market in the future. The cost will go down. It’s expensive at the moment but it won’t be forever. Think of the cost of a plasma screen TV years ago, and look how the price has come down.”