FIFA president Sepp Blatter has strongly spoken in favour of the goal-line technology after Tuesday’s England v Ukraine match at the Euros that saw a genuine Ukranian goal not allowed by the referee.

“After last night’s match #GLT is no longer an alternative but a necessity”, Blatter tweeted, expressing hope that he would be able to get the point across to the game’s rule-makers, the International Football Association Board.

The goal-line technology - developed by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology - was used experimentally earlier this month in a friendly between England and Belgium at Wembley.

Two years back in the World Cup, when England received a 1-4 drubbing in the hands of Germany and were subsequently eliminated from the tournament, almost every football lover from London to Liverpool blamed the match officials for denying Frank Lampard a legitimate goal which the supporters believed could have scripted the story of the match differently.

Co-host of the Euro 2012 Ukraine will have the same bitter feeling after a shot by Marco Devic partially beat English goalie Joe Hart and appeared to have crossed the line, but neither match officials spotted it conclusively and a goal was ruled out. Requiring to win the match to proceed to the next round, had the tournament co-host got the equaliser in the first quarter of the second half, they could have put up a better fight for the remainder of the match, felt many fans.

“We made a mistake”, Collina said after the match, adding, “I wish we hadn’t made the mistake but we did. Referees are human beings and human beings make mistakes.”

Related:
Euro 2012: Roy Hodgson admits England exceeded his expectations
Gareth Southgate warns England squad ahead of Euro 2012

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