GoalControl is a German company based in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

, which has developed a goal-line technology for Association football. Goalcontrol

The Goal Control system features 14 high speed cameras which are mounted around the stadium, 7 directed to each of the goals. These cameras are used to detect if the ball has crossed the goal line or not. The camera is capable of taking 500 pictures per seconds and the ball's movement within . The data from the camera is then sent to the central image processing center located within the stadium using a

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

cable, where a virtual representation of the ball is output to confirm the goal. The

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

is equipped with a watch displaying the camera's data which will vibrate and display a signal whenever a goal is scored. This signal is then transmitted wirelessly. The technology was licensed by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

in early 2013 alongside competing systems

GoalRef GoalRef is an association football goal-line technology system developed by German research institute Fraunhofer in association with Select Sport. It works by detecting the passage of the ball using magnetic induction. Along with Hawk-Eye, GoalCo ...

Hawk-Eye Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile o ...

, and Cairos. Testing of the camera systems were completed in February, 2013. The GoalControl system was used at the

2013 Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...

as a trial run, where it detected 68 goals and during the

2013 FIFA Club World Cup The 2013 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2013 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between t ...

to track the ball, while GoalRef was used for display. The system was used

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Brazil where it would be the first World Cup to feature goal-line technology. During the 2014 World Cup, one notable event of the GoalControl goal-line technology being used to award a goal was in the group E match between France and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

in which a kick from France's Karim Benzema bounced back from the goal post and an attempt to save the ball by Honduras' goalkeeper Noel Valladares led to an own goal. A vote cast in early 2014 by the 36 German clubs of the first and second division decided with only 12 out of 36 votes for using the system due to the "exorbitant cost" of €250,000 (chip in the ball) to €500,000 (Hawk-Eye, GoalControl) per club. The support of 24 clubs would have been required to carry the motion.Fußball: Bundesliga verzichtet auf Torlinientechnik
Spiegel Online, 2014-03-24.

References

External links

* Sports officiating technology Association football equipment Companies of Germany {{footy-stub