Football’s world governing body Fifa will wait until March next year before deciding whether to use an electronically chipped ball at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
Fifa media spokesperson Markus Siegler confirmed there would be a meeting in March to discuss the tests of the chipped ball and decide whether it is ready for the 2006 finals, running from June 9 until July 9.
The chipped ball was tested at the under-17 World Championships in Peru in September and is expected to be tried out again at the World Club Championship in December.
Fifa have shown interest in technology advances in football and believe the chipped ball can help referees make crucial goal-line calls that are sometimes impossible even with countless television replays.
Geoff Hurst’s goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final 4-2 win over Germany is the best remembered goal-line incident with no-one sure whether the ball crossed the line almost a decade later.
Most recently Liverpool’s Luis Garcia scored a controversial winning goal in last season’s 1-0 Champions League semifinal victory over Chelsea with television replays unable to prove whether the ball had crossed the line. – Sapa-AFP