PARIS: The French league has cancelled the use of goal-line technology after the latest problems with the system operated by the German GoalControl company writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

A league statement said that GoalControl had been warned last month after system errors earlier in the season and the last straw was a report of two more incidents in Wednesday’s league cup ties.

League director-general Didier Quillot said: “GLT experienced two serious malfunctions in the Amiens-PSG match and a second incident in Angers-Montpellier where the GLT wrongly caused the referee’s watch to vibrate.

“These two irregularities are unacceptable, especially as they occured just after we put GoalControl on notice. These two anomalies show that GLT, in any case in its current version, is not reliable .”

GoalControl is contracted until June 2019 to operate its system in both league and league cup but the league council could decide next week to cancel its agreement altogether.

Controversy erupted initially last autumn when Suzana Castaignede, a former employee, explaining to several media outlets how it was possible to manually vibrate the referee’s watch when the ball crosses the line without the system perceiving it.

The French league launched a trial of video refereeing in the league cup this week. This will continue.

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