BUDAPEST: England’s last warm-up match before new manager Roy Hodgson and his squad head off to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine will be used to test Hawk-Eye’s camera-based goal-line technology system writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
The match, against Belgium on Saturday, June 2, will see the system put through its paces again by the independent Swiss tester institute, EMPA. This follows a previous ‘live’ test during the Hampshire FA Senior Cup final at St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton on May 16.
Such tests, along with those being conducted for the GoalRef system in Denmark, will provide the evidence which will help the International Football Association Board decide whether to end decades of controversy by approving GLT at aspecial meeting on July 2 in Kyiv, the day after the Euro 2012 finals.
Only the EMPA observers, IFAB and FIFA representatives at Wembley will have access to the GLT system readings. Therefore, should a goal-line incident occur at this or any of the ‘test’ matches, the system will not be used for the match itself.
The use of the England-Belgium match was confirmed by world federation FIFA on the of its 62nd Congress in Budapest.
The Danish-German GoalRef system has been scheduled for a ‘live’ trial in the Danish league.
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