Premier League approves goal-line technology

Camera-based system to be installed in all grounds.

LONDON:

The Premier League announced a historic decision to sanction the use of goal-line technology in the English top flight from the 2013-14 season onwards, in a global first for a domestic competition.

British-based firm Hawk-Eye was chosen over German company GoalControl to supply the ground-breaking technology at a meeting of the Premier League’s 20 club chairmen.

Hawk-Eye’s system uses seven cameras to track the movement of the ball and sends a signal to the match officials’ watches within a second if the ball crosses one of the two goal-lines.

It will now be put in place at all Premier League grounds, while the Football Association also intends to install a system at London’s Wembley Stadium in time for the traditional season-opener, the Community Shield, in August.

“The Premier League is pleased to announce that it has awarded Hawk-Eye, the world’s leading provider of vision processing instruments to sport, the contract to provide goal-line technology systems across its 20 member clubs and all 380 Barclays Premier League matches,” the league announced on its official website.

“The camera-based system will be installed during the close season ready for use on the opening weekend of the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League season — Saturday 17 August.

“This will be the first time that goal-line technology is used in any domestic competition.”

The Premier League, the world’s most popular domestic football championship, is in line to become the first of Europe’s major leagues to introduce the technology.

Its arrival will mark the biggest change in the English game since the back-pass rule was introduced in 1992, preventing goalkeepers from picking up passes from team-mates.

Hawk-Eye, which was bought by electronics giant Sony in 2011, already provides ball-tracking systems for tennis and cricket.

Goal-line technology has been introduced in a bid to eliminate controversies that occur when officials fail to notice that the ball has crossed the goal-line during matches. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2013.