Lawmakers move closer to allowing video technology

Football's lawmakers have moved a major step closer to the introduction of goal-line technology but ordered that any system to be considered will have to confirm within one second that a goal has been scored.

Yesterday's decision by the International FA Board (IFAB) - made up of Fifa and the four British home associations - to re-consider the issue just seven months after ruling out any technology was taken at the body's business meeting in Newport.

It comes after Fifa's U-turn on the issue following Frank Lampard's infamous disallowed goal for England against Germany in the World cup in South Africa. Lampard's long-range effort crashed off the bar and bounced a clear two feet over the line, only for assistant referee Mauricio Espinosa to miss it. Germany went on to win 4-1 and book a place in the quarter-finals.

While Sepp Blatter at first ruled out the introduction of goal-line technology following Lampard's 'goal', he then - following a barrage of criticism - admitted: "It is obvious that after the experience so far in this World Cup it would be a nonsense to not reopen the file of technology at the business meeting of the International FA Board."

Yesterday's meeting also confirmed that independent companies will be appointed to test the various systems - so far 13 systems have been presented to Fifa.

IFAB has laid down a number of rules about the technology, saying in a statement: "The technology would apply solely to the goal line, and only to determine whether a goal has been scored or not.

"The system must be accurate; the indication of whether a goal has been scored must be immediate and automatically confirmed within one second; the indication of whether a goal has been scored will only be communicated to the match officials." A deadline of the end of next month has been set for any other company to make a first presentation of their technologies to Fifa.

A testing period will then take place to determine the accuracy of each system and this will be reported back to the IFAB's annual general meeting on 5 March.

The IFAB also heard an update on the experiments with an extra assistant referee behind each goal line.

Experiments are currently taking place by Uefa in Champions League and Europa League matches and Euro 2012 qualifiers, as well as by the French Football Association, the Moroccan Football Association and the Qatar Football Association.

Further experiments will start next year in the Ivory Coast, Mexico and Brazil.