Soccer governing body FIFA will not be discussing goal-line technology when its rulers meet in Wales, it was announced Monday — contrary to previous indications by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Blatter previously announced that the controversial issue would be on the menu when he apologized to England and Mexico for refereeing errors in their World Cup defeats to Germany and Argentina, respectively, in the last 16 knockout round.
Blatter said goal-line technology had to be discussed once again at the “first opportunity” and indicated that would take place during the meeting in the Welsh capital of Cardiff this week.
“It is obvious that after the experience so far in this World Cup, it would be a nonsense to not re-open the file of technology at the business meeting of the International FA Board in July,” he stated in Johannesburg last month.
But a FIFA spokesman said Monday: “The meeting this week is purely to ratify any requests that have come forward over the implementation of the assistant referees experiment, which was used last year in the Europa League. The first formal meeting where that discussion on goal-line technology could take place is in October.”
Goal-line technology was forced back onto FIFA’s agenda after England’s Frank Lampard had a legitimate goal disallowed, while Mexico was aggrieved when Argentinean striker Carlos Tevez was clearly offside when he scored the first goal.
That incident was made worse when a replay was shown on the big screen at the stadium.