By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter appears to be on a collision course with UEFA boss Michel Platini over the possible introduction of goal-line technology.
Platini will do his best in March to try to prevent football’s law-makers finally giving the go-ahead to trialling technology, but Blatter has given yet another interview in which he backs some kind of aid for referees – provided the system is almost foolproof.
“My position is that if they work, then we will do it,” Blatter told CNN almost two months before an all-important International FA Board (IFAB) meeting in Wales.
“If there is one of these systems that is accurate and immediate, and also not too complicated, then I think goal-line technology has a good chance to be accepted.
“If it works the board will say ‘Yes’, even if they’re conservative.”
Earlier this week, Platini replied “dream on” when I asked him about the likelihood of goal-line technology being implemented in order to satisfy the wishes of a majority of grassroots fans.
He instead played up his alternative system of an extra assistant behind each goal, trialled in European competitions but largely ineffective so far.
Blatter hinted that Platini, once his right-hand man, may not be able to hold out indefinitely against the growing tide of support for a scientific approach to seeing whether the ball has crossed the line.
“Michel Platini is totally against any technical device because he’s afraid that when we are in the goal-line technology we could go to the 18-yard line and we can go to the offside position or whatever, but for the time being we are talking about only goal-line technology.”
The IFAB is made up of FIFA, who have four votes, and the four British associations, who have one vote each.
England and Scotland have long been in favour of goal-line technology, opposing Wales and Northern Ireland who have lined up alongside FIFA in the anti-technology camp.
But Blatter’s U-turn following the World Cup in South Africa has given the concept its best chance of being voted in.
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August 2010: Sepp Blatter – I’ve always been behind goal-line technology