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A revolution in soccer!

When we play a soccer game for fun on the beach or in the park, the limits of the field are not very important. They could be some seaweed on the sand or a few daisies on the grass. The goals made with sticks or athletic bags and there is no goal line.
Goal? No goal? Who cares!
An official soccer game is different. In a tournament, goal or no goal means 'in' or 'out'. No one likes to go out, in particular by mistake!
After a shot, the ball can hit the cross bar very hard and rebound on the ground in a fraction of a second. Was it in or out?
How can a referee judge this situation from the wrong frontal prospective and from the ground? He can hardly see the goal line.
How can the flag referee judge from 50 yards away?
If the score is already 3 or 4 to 0, it might be irrelevant, but if it's 0-0 it could be very 'discomforting', if the goal is given and wasn't or vice-versa.
And here we're only talking about a youth game. What about a professional game? What about the final of the Champions League? What about the World Cup? What about the Final of the World Cup? Can a nation win or loose the World Cup with a 'ghost goal'? An episode like this can clearly happen and because it can, IT HAS!

For more than a century, nothing has been introduced to solve this problem.
Nothing, until now.
Not only, goal or no goal would be solved, but also out of bounds in all situations, corners too.
Last week, we took a step in what could be the future of soccer. The U17 World Cup in Peru was chosen to test a great novelty which, if it is successful, will be used beginning next year in the World Cup in Germany:

The " Smart Ball".

It will be produced by Adidas and carried inside a microchip that sends a radio signal when the ball entirely crosses a line, as if it had touch an electric fence. The signal is transmitted from 12 antennas, positioned on the side lines of the field to a computer that then, in turn, sends a message on a watch worn by the referees.

"This is a help for the referees, not a substitute." said Joseph Blatter, President of FIFA, adding that, in any case, the final decision will be made by the referee.
Blatter has the rare gift of constantly saying something absurd. How can a referee decide differently, when something so scientific attests to the ball being in or out, by his 'own' decision?

Coach Gianni
Posted on 26 Sep 2005 by coachgianni
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