The use of technology in football is no longer a utopia … or so it seems. According to what has been published on the website of FIFA this morning, the agency has chosen the German company GoalControl GmbH as the official Goal Line Technology (GLT) provider for the tournament to detect whether the ball crossed the goal line. Apparently the German company was selected in the tender ahead of three other companies that were competing for the rights as the system used by the German company is best suited to the requirements to host the Brazil 2014 World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup later this year.
The selected system uses 14 high-speed cameras mounted around the field, forming a system called GoalControl-4D and will be tested at all stages in the following months. This will be the second time that the goal line technology will go into practice after a first experiment during the last World Cup held in Japan.
The demonstration event in Brazil and will be announced soon by the world football governing body prior to starting the Confederations Cup. A media event is scheduled to take place in Brazil prior to the event with a demonstration of the GoalControl-4D system. Further details will be communicated to journalists in due course.