Blatter issues apology to FA for disallowed goal
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has apologised to England after Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany was disallowed on Sunday, and has said technology in football will be considered.
England were trailing Germany 2-1 at the point where Lampard’s effort crossed the line, by was ruled out by on-pitch officials. Germany went on to win the match 4-1 and reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Fifa have come under increased pressure once again about the issue of technology in football since the match. On the same day, Mexico were also on the end of a poor decision, as Argentina’s first of three goals, scored by Carlos Tevéz, was clearly offside in their last-16 encounter.
“It is obvious that after the experience so far in this World Cup it would be a nonsense to not reopen the file of technology at the business meeting of the International FA Board in July,” Blatter said.
“Personally I deplore it when you see evident referee mistakes but it's not the end of a competition or the end of football, this can happen. The only thing I can do is yesterday I have spoken to the two federations [England and Mexico] directly concerned by referees’ mistakes. I have expressed to them apologies and I understand they are not happy and that people are criticising.
“It happened in 1966 and then 44 years later - though it was not quite the same. I apologised to England and Mexico. The English said thank you and accepted that you can win [some] and you lose [some], and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it,” Blatter concluded.
The 74-year-old has said Fifa will consider the possibility of using technology, but only for whether the ball has crossed the line and not for video replays. “The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goal-line technology.
“Football is a game that never stops and the moment there was a discussion if the ball was in or out, or there was a goal-scoring opportunity, do we give a possibility to a team to call for replays once or twice like in tennis? For situations like the Mexico game you don't need technology,” he said.
Back in March, Fifa dismissively said no to the use of technology in football. They based their decision on several reasons, such as the universality of the game, the human aspect, the financial aspect, the extended use of technology and the nature of the game.
“This means that the game must be played in the same way no matter where you are in the world. Why remove the responsibility from the referee to give it to someone else? Fans love to debate any given incident in a game. It is part of the human nature of our sport.
“The application of modern technologies can be very costly, and therefore not applicable on a global level. If play were to be stopped to take a decision, it would break up the rhythm of the game and possibly deny a team the opportunity to score a goal. It would also not make sense to stop play every two minutes to review a decision, as this would go against the natural dynamism of the game,” Blatter said at the time.
They stood firm on their decision, which was controversial, but now Fifa will be doing some unwanted back-tracking.
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