FRANKFURT: Months after Bundesliga bosses disdainfully ruled out introducing goal-line technology its absence proved crucial when a valid goal was denied in a game between Hoffenheim and Nurnberg.

Hoffenheim’s Kevin Volland saw a lob crossed the goal-line before bouncing back into play but referee Thorsten Kinhofer refused to award it after consulting assitsant Detlef Scheppe.

Nurnberg, 2-0 down at the time, fought back for a 2-2 draw.

Kinhofer said later: “My first thought was that the ball had not gone in and it was only when I saw the television pictures that it became clear that this was a mistake.

“Wherever it comes down to human judgment, errors happen. We referees would welcome having this kind of decision taken away from us, but that’s just not the case so we have to take the decisions, and this time it was the wrong one unfortunately.”

Nurnberg goalkeeper Raphael Schafer, despite having been saved, said he was in favour of technology which was approved for wordlwide use last July by the law-making International Football Association Board.

He said: “I am all for it,” he said. “That would relieve the pressure on the linesmen. The whole point is not to make the referees look like idiots.”

The German league decided last March that goal-line technology would not be introduced, if at all, “before July 1, 2015.”

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