Smartballs come to relief of footie refs

They think it's all... bugger, the system's crashed

Posted in Bootnotes, 2nd September 2005 15:57 GMT

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FIFA is trialling technology which could relieve football refs of the onerous task of deciding if the ball is actually on the pitch.

The worldwide football body is trialling Adidas’ smartball technology at a tournament in Peru this month, according to The Sporting Life, and could draft in the system for next year’s World Cup.

The smartballs are fitted with a microchip and sensors are embedded in the touchline. If a ball runs out of play or into the goal, the ref is alerted by a device on his wrist.

Freed of the responsibility of working out where the ball is, on-pitch officials can now concentrate on their real job of being abused by over-paid half wits with all the social graces of a herd of brain-damaged buffalo.

And before any of our more, shall we say, continental readers write in, the technology would not have made any difference to the events of 1966, as the ball was definitely over the line. Got it. ®

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