Fifa president Sepp Blatter has taken on board the outcry for goalline technology and will consider the implementation at a meeting in July. The decision comes in the wake of Frank Lampard's goal that never was against Germany, with Blatter issuing an apology to the English Football Association in the wake of the incident.
Lampard thought he had restored parity to matters when he chipped goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with the score at 2-1 to Germany in their second-round World Cup match.
However, Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and linesman Mauricio Espinoza failed to spot the ball travel almost one foot over the line and bounce back out, resulting in the goal not being given and England going on to lose the game 4-1.
Coupled with a failure to spot Carlos Tevez's clear offside position when scoring Argentina's first goal against Mexico later that evening, it has sparked an outrage over why technology has not been introduced to the game to give a definitive answer to contentious decisions.
"It happened in 1966 and then 44 years later - though it was not quite the same," said Blatter
"I apologised to England and Mexico. The English said, 'thank you' and accepted that you can win [some] and you lose [some], and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it."
File re-opened
Blatter has been firmly against the introduction of goalline technology, stating it to not be in keeping with the game and cannot be brought in at grass-roots level, but it seems that the outcry has caused him to now consider its implementation.
He has now stated that it will be further discussed, but also indicated that he will not consider video replays as an option when a contentious decision must be made.
"It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be nonsense not to re-open the file on goalline technology," said Blatter.
"We will naturally take on board the discussion on technology and have first opportunity in July at the business meeting.
"Personally I deplore it when you see evident referee mistakes but it's not the end of a competition or the end of football, this can happen.
"The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goalline technology.
"Football is a game that never stops and the moment there was a discussion if the ball was in or out, or there was a goal-scoring opportunity, do we give a possibility to a team to call for replays once or twice like in tennis?
"For situations like the Mexico game you don't need technology."
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