The English Premier League has voted to introduce goal-line technology later this year, finally putting an end to debates over whether a player has scored a goal. The BBC reports that Premier League chairmen met earlier today to decide which technology would be used to provide real-time feedback for match officials, awarding the contract to UK provider Hawk-Eye.
Hawk-Eye isn't a new name in sports — it has provided the ball-tracking technology for major tennis and cricket matches for nearly a decade. Over the course of the next few months, Hawk-Eye will outfit its technology in all 20 Premier League stadiums, utilizing seven cameras per goal to detect the ball to a millimeter accuracy. Once installed, the system will detect whether the ball has crossed the goal line and issue an alert via a vibration and visual signal on a referee's watch — all within a second.
Hawk-Eye will use seven cameras per goal to detect the ball to a millimeter accuracy
The Premier League's decision comes just over a week after football governing body FIFA awarded German company GoalControl the contract to supply goal-line technology for next year's World Cup in Brazil, narrowly beating Hawk-Eye. With officials now willing to follow other sports and introduce ball-tracking technology, "ghost goals" may soon be a thing of the past.