Hawk-Eye inventor Paul Hawkins has revealed that it was Uefa president Michel Platini who blocked the introduction of goal-line technology in football.
Speaking to XPRESS, Hawkins said: "It's unfortunate that unlike tennis, football doesn't have a business-like approach to matters. They have an International Football Association Board (IFAB) which decides on the rules. It has four members from Fifa and others from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and meet only once a year. About 13 months back they told me they wanted to use the goal-line technology, but gave us four conditions to fulfil. They said it had to be real-time, 100 per cent accurate, had to be used just for the goal-line disputes and the results would only be available to match officials.
"They tested us again and all the criteria matched. However, in the meeting last month, Uefa president Michel Platini, who is not even on the board, made a complete U-turn and asked the members to shelve the plan. He said he preferred human mistakes and even proposed having two additional linesmen to monitor the goallines rather than rely on technology."
Despite the setback, Hawkins is looking forward to continuing the success of Hawk-Eye in tennis and branching into other sports. "We are happy with the way Hawk-Eye is being used in tennis although we are trying to engage fans more with a few modifications. We are also happy with the idea of having three challenges per set. In the near future, we intend to move to golf and take a look at the players' swings," he said.
