FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has given the strongest indication yet that goal-line technology will be introduce for the 2014 World Cup.
Football s governing body had been resistant to introducing technology in the past, but has had a recent change of heart given a number of high-profile incidents, including one involving England and Germany at the 2010 World Cup.
Testing has been carried out in recent month to ensure the technology is completely accurate, and Valcke said it could be trialled at the Club World Cup or Confederations Cup to ensure it was ready for use in Brazil in 2014.
If we can afford the price of a goal-line technology system then I don t see what the question is, Valcke said.
We think that the technology is something which is important and if we think that we don t to see anymore of what we have seen in South Africa and make sure what happened between Milan and Juventus will not happen at the World Cup in 2014, then I would say we will make sure that the system will be in place in the 12 stadiums.
The other tournaments we have are the Club World Cup next year in December. And it s more a part of the training with the referees for the World Cup that we could decide that it makes sense to install this in Japan next year.
We could install it in the two stadiums so the system is ready for the players and the company can test the system properly. It s important to have a real test.
And again the Confederations Cup in 2013 I think we will have 4-6 stadiums which are World Cup Stadiums. So what is used in 2013 would be used in 2014. Again it makes sense, and if one system is working we will do our best but definitely at the Confederations Cup and at the World Cup and maybe one testing event before.
Football Association general secretary Alex Horne also backed the use of technology, and said it was proving very effective in testing.
It s an important step forward for us and it s important that we implement it properly and we do test it to failure, Horne said.
We saw a video today, where you can see the testing that s been undertaken with hundreds of balls being fired into the net against walls very close to the goal line.
So the good news from phase-one is that we have absolute certainty, 100 percent certainty with most of the tests and 99 percent certainty for one of the test which is fine.
So we are very comfortable that the technology is proving itself and that s important because after all it must be accurate otherwise it s not worth having.
