Goal-line talks sidelined by Fifa

GOAL-line technology will not be on the agenda when football's law-makers meet in Wales later this week, contrary to indications by Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

The technical sub-committee of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) will meet in Cardiff tomorrow, but as planned back in May, there will only be one item on the agenda and that will be the continuing experiment with additional assistant referees.

Blatter announced during the World Cup finals that goal-line technology had to be discussed once again at the "first opportunity". "The meeting this week is purely to ratify any requests that have come forward over the implementation of the assistant referees experiment, which was used last year in the Europa League," said a Fifa spokesman.

Calls for the introduction of technology intensified after England's Frank Lampard was denied a goal in the World Cup second-round clash with Germany when his shot rebounded off the underside of the crossbar and dropped over the line but, unseen by the match officials, it was not given.