Back in February, FIFA confirmed that they would be using goal-line technology (GLT) in next summer’s World Cup and were testing several systems to determine which one they would use. Today, FIFA has come to a decision on which system they will use for the World Cup 2014 — ‘GoalControl.’
GoalControl is a German system (one of the other two that had not yet been officially licensed by FIFA back in February) that does not require any changes or modifications to be made to the goals, nets or balls. It uses a series of high-speed cameras (seven per goal) that are placed strategically around the pitch at the particular stadium’s roof/catwalk.
In the video above, you can see how the technology works. When a goal is scored, the referee is notified via a vibration in his watch while the word “GOAL” is also displayed.
Here’s a more in-depth explanation of how it works from GoalControl’s website:
The GoalControl-4D system works with 14 high-speed cameras (7 per goal) around the pitch at the stadium roof/catwalk. The cameras are connected to a powerful image processing computer system which tracks the movement of all objects on the pitch and filters out the players, referees and all disturbing objects. The remaining object is the ball and the system knows its three dimensional x-, y- and z-position with a precision of a few millimeters in the coordinate system of the pitch. When the ball passes the goal line, the system sends a vibration- and optical signal to the officals´watches. Of course, all camera images of such goal event, and also of all near-goal events, are stored and can be replayed anytime.
FIFA said that they chose GoalControl over other goal-line technology systems like Hawk-Eye and GoalRef due to a number of factors. ”The respective bids were also judged on cost and project management factors such as staffing and time schedules for installation,” FIFA said in a statement.
The cost to install the goal-line technology is $260,000 per stadium and will cost another $3,900 per match to operate. Not cheap, but definitely worth it to avoid another Frank Lampard incident.
[DT]
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