While many sports employ some sort of goal-line technology to cut down on human error on the part of referees, the use of goal-line technology, or GLT, has been somewhat controversial. FIFA only approved the use of goal-line technology in the last year or so, and today, the Premier League is following suit. It announced plans to employ Sony's Hawk-Eye for goal-line technology.
"The Premier League has been a long-time advocate of goal-line technology, and at times it didn’t look like it would be something we would be able to introduce," said Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore. "However, since FIFA took the decision to permit it we have been working hard to get a system in as soon as practically possible," he continued. "Football is fundamentally a simple game; whichever side scores most goals wins. So, when one is scored, or indeed not scored, and we have the ability through technology to definitively know whether the ball crossed the line we should absolutely use it."
Hawk-Eye will be rolled out to all 20 Premier League member clubs and will be in use for all 380 Barclays Premier League matches. The League says that the camera-based Hawk-Eye system will be installed during the close season ready for use on the opening weekend of the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League season on Saturday, August 17, 2013. The Premier League plans to make replays available to host broadcasters and is looking into putting the replays on the big screens at stadiums.
Hawk-Eye is owned by Sony and is also used in cricket and tennis (as seen in the photo above). It uses a combination of visual images and timing data from multiple high-speed cameras at different locations and angles around the area of play. Hawk-Eye was developed in 2001 and bought by Sony a decade later, in 2011.
