Goal Line Technology

Some religions dictate their followers to worship on certain specific days of the week, like Christianity, which accords special status to Sundays, while some, spoilt for choice, mark every single day of the week as holy, such as Hinduism. However the world’s most fanatically observed religion, far from requiring days of worship, merely arrests all attention for ninety minutes, and within that, arouses divine fervour among people from every possible walk of life.

Football is the world’s most popular sport by a considerable distance, that may well be in light years. The magic of this game that captivates rapturous fans all over the world ceaselessly, lies in the deceptive simplicity of the game, that hides beneath it layers of excitement. It seems hard to believe that something which draws such a massive global audience is merely twenty two individuals kicking a ball around on grass. This immense global following has made football endorsement haven, as well as increasing the stakes, bringing every aspect of football under immense scrutiny. One such highly controversial area under scrutiny is that of the invasion of football by modern technology. The great joy of playing and watching football lies in its frenetic pace, and its open and direct nature, which is invariably hindered by the intrusion of, as some people consider, unnecessary technology.

Goal line technology is the offspring of the growing need to verify whether the ball has crossed the goal line or not, in as short a period of time as possible with great accuracy. Footballing laws clearly stipulate that a goal can only be declared legal if the ball has completely crossed the line. However, given the fast pace of football, coupled with the distractions and intense pressure of a modern-day football game, linesmen, who patrol the touchline on either side of the pitch, in football , cannot correctly verify whether or not the ball has completely crossed the line, that too from quite some distance away. Also, often, their view is entirely hindered by the melee of players who inevitably surround the goal in the case of such goal mouth scrambles that generally result in such tight situations.

Such incidents have cropped up regularly in football, one of the most notable instances being that which occurred in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was held in South Africa, and catered to one of the largest global audiences ever. In a vital second round match, Germany met England, and barged ahead with two goals. England pulled one back, and then, sometime later, talismanic Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard   hit an outrageous shot, that cannoned off the crossbar, bounced on the goal line, and came out. The goal was disallowed. However, television replays clearly showed that the ball had crossed the line, and thus, exposed the dire need for goal line technology. England went on to lose the match 4-1, and were thus knocked out of the tournament. The consequent outpour of rage and frustration directed at FIFA over its shambolic system to verify the legality of goals, forced the organisation to shift its approach, and embrace goal line technology. Numerous technology systems were tested by FIFA, before eventually the two best ones were determined. These two systems are GoalRef and Hawk-Eye.

 GoalRef operates on the principle of electromagnetic induction. It involves the simple procedure of implanting a microchip within a standard football, coupled with magnetic coils on the inside. In order to detect the presence of the ball, an electromagnetic field is set up within the goal, generally of low intensity. If all the panels of the ball cross the goal line, then a goal alert is immediately transmitted to the officials, using a scrambled radio signal, which causes a message, indicating the legality of the goal, to be displayed on their watches. There is virtually no time lag in this process, thus ensuring that the pace and flow of the game is not affected.

Pros: The entire notification process takes less than a tenth of a second. Another major advantage is that GoalRef's sensors can be implanted in just about any ball, thus making the whole system cheap and simple to manufacture compared to the pricey Hawk-Eye system.                                           

 Cons: The cons of this system are associated more with the lack of visual delights for the viewer, as the system is mainly accessible only to the referee.

 Hawk-Eye was first developed in 1999 and is most popularly used in cricket and tennis, often accompanied with great controversy. It applies trigonometry, such that, super-high-speed cameras shooting at 500 frames per second (20 times faster than a normal camera) track the path of the ball. The major benefit, commercially, accrued from Hawk-Eye lies in the numerous resultant side-applications that can be derived from the technology’s highly accurate ball tracking ability. Hawk-Eye not only tracks the path of a moving object, but is also capable of predicting the motion of an object, based on a tracking algorithm. Such tracking is possible even if the field of view of certain cameras are blocked, thus ensuring greater accuracy. Digitised images obtained from the tracking processes are widely used for a variety of purposes, such as to entice viewers, as well as to provide coaches and players with extensive, scientific food for thought replete with in depth analysis and modifications suited to every individual game. Its application to football involves placing six cameras for each goal mouth around the stadium, which will track the movement of the ball in great detail. The system is near real-time and referees will be notified on their encrypted watch in less than one second from the ball crossing the line.                                                                                          
 Pros: The whole process takes less than a second, and is accurate to within 3.6 mm. The cameras are able to provide a visual display of the ball's path that has already proven an exciting extra element - albeit one that is often disputed - in both cricket and tennis. The ball-tracking isn't limited to use on the goal-line, either - the system is a great fit for TV by showing the path of thunderbolt free-kicks and volleys, for example. These exciting and potentially lucrative add-ons make this the system favoured by the English Premier League, the world’s most competitive, popular and commercially viable league.                                                         
Cons: A minimum of twenty five per cent of the ball must be visible for Hawk-Eye to operate correctly. Hence if the ball went over the line in a melee of bodies after a goalmouth scramble, the field of view of most of the cameras would be severely impaired, and the  system would not be able to make a conclusive call. Also, the need to install expensive high-speed cameras and black netting makes this technology unrealistic at the grassroots level.

Inspite of the oft-levelled criticism that it interrupts the flow of the game and reduces the human element and charm pivotal to football, in July 2012 in a revolutionary step, FIFA announced that it would introduce Goal-Line technology at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. Hawk-Eye technology was employed at the Toyota Stadium, while GoalRef was used at the International Stadium Yokohama. Coincidentally, once again, a Frank Lampard team, Chelsea, happened to be at the centre of this landmark event, and once again, they happened to lose, albeit sans any controversy, thus bringing a chain of groundbreaking  events in football to a full circle. The regular use of goalline technology has received a massive shot in the arm with the introduction of Hawk – Eye in the English Premier League on a permanent basis, from this season.