When the IFAB, International Football Association Board, meet on Thursday they are expected to vote for the go-ahead of goal line technology. The results of the recent testing are expected to be heard by the board before they vote in both the GoalRef and Hawk-Eye systems.
While this kind of technology has been called for for a long time by many in the game, a few are still unsure about Hawk-Eye will actually work. Basically, there will be 6 cameras per goal which will be tracking the ball as it moves around the pitch.
The software within the system will be using a ‘triangulation’ to pinpoint the ball’s precise location. When the ball crosses the goal line an encrypted radio is directly sent to a wristwatch the referee will wear to alert him that a goal has been scored. In keeping with the requirements that FIFA have made, the entire process will be completed in less than a second.
Once approval has been made, both the FA and the Premier League can introduce this technology into competitions. The chairman of the FA David Bernstein, as well as Alex Horne the general secretary, has travelled to Zurich in order to take part in the voting.. The FA in England, along with their counterparts in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have one vote each, while the governing body of world football, FIFA, has four. Hawk-eye needs 6 of the 8 votes to go through.
So to GoalRef, this works via a microchip that has been implanted in the football and uses low, magnetic waves in the area surrounding the goal. This system detects if any changes have been made in the magnetic fields along or behind the goal line to determine whether or not a goal has indeed been scored. This process also takes less than a second for the message to be relayed to the ref.