Blatter open to goalline technology

The discussion surrounding the introduction of technology into football remains an open one, according to Sepp Blatter, but the FIFA president insists that it should be restricted only to reviewing controversial goalline calls.

The topic was raised following a decision by officials during the Confederations Cup final in Johannesburg yesterday not to award a goal when Kaka’s second-half header for Brazil looked to have crossed the line after hitting the underside of the crossbar.

It was eventually cleared away by United States goalkeeper Tim Howard, but television replays showed the ball to have been over the line, although Swedish referee Martin Hansson was not interested.

The South Americans were trailing 2-1 at the time and went on to win the game 3-2.

Blatter said today: “Yesterday we again faced a situation where all the specialists will say: ’Where is the goalline technology and where are the assistant referees?'”

“But if the assistant, who was in the right angle to analyse a situation, could not intervene by saying yes or no, I cannot see how an additional assistant could see that.

“I think such situations can only be then assessed if we had goalline technology. You know we are open on goalline technology.

“But for the time being, all the technologies that have been presented to the International Football Association Board, are not accurate – or not accurate at the level where we can honestly decide whether it was in or out.”

Speaking after the incident yesterday, Kaka was disappointed to have been denied the goal, but said that it was something beyond his control.

“It could have been nice to finish it off with a goal in the final, but the linesman didn’t see it,” he said. “I hope FIFA will come up with a plan to make sure things like that are sorted out.”

However, the world governing body chief feels that the sport still needs its human element.

He continued: “In the meantime, let us live with such situations where we do not know exactly.

“This is also good in life where we do not know exactly and not know the answers to all questions. This is philosophy.”

FIFA has already put technology to the test, using a chipped ball system at the Club World Cup in Japan in 2007, while a goalline system was also tried in some European Under-19 Championship games last year.

However, Blatter believes it is a complicated issue and not as simple as using ’hawk-eye’ in tennis.

He added: “Yes, we are conservative, but there is a big difference between tennis and football. In tennis, you are assessing only one dimension, which is the line, while in football, you have three dimensions.

“Let football have this human face, where human errors participate in a human game. We are not so far behind tennis, but it’s easier in tennis to see if it’s in or out. The other difference is that tennis stops and football never does.

“But when we speak technology, I have to insist, we only talk about goalline technology.”