Players union demands technology rethink

Football’s international trade union on Monday added its voice to growing demands for goal-line technology and video replays to be introduced after a succession of embarrassing World Cup refereeing blunders.

FIFPro, the body which represents players worldwide, believes Sunday’s controversial incidents in the England against Germany and Argentina v Mexico last 16 ties, have forced the games rulers to rethink their opposition.

“We can do it, the football world wants it and yet it is still being thwarted, that is unacceptable,” said Tijs Tummers, the secretary of FIFPro?s technical committee.

“The error during the German-England match would have been the easiest to avoid. There is not a single convincing argument against the use of goal-line technology.”

England had an equaliser by Frank Lampard disallowed in their 4-1 defeat against Germany in Bloemfontein after the referee and his linesman failed to spot that the midfielder’s shot had bounced down off the bar and crossed the line.

Mexico were also furious that Argentina striker Carlos Tevez wasn’t given offside before scoring the first goal in his country’s 3-1 win just hours later in Johannesburg.

“With offside incidents, it is slightly more complicated, but the Argentinian goal which was allowed to stand shows the failure of the system even better,” added Tummers.

“Referee Roberto Rosetti had a long consultation with the assistant referee who was in contact with the fourth official via a microphone. He would undoubtedly have heard that Tevez was offside, the whole stadium had already seen it by then via images on the scoreboard.

“Yet, because the referee was not allowed to rely on video images, he had to award the goal which he knew should have been disallowed. You could see the doubt in his eyes. Technology does not undermine the authority of referees, it only helps them.”