English Premier League to test Hawk Eye

By IANS

London : English Premier League will test a Hawk-Eye system, which will determine if a ball crosses the goal-line or not, with a view to using it in matches.


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Paul Hawkins invented a system that is used for key decisions in cricket and tennis and the ball-tracking device will be tried out at Reading's academy.

Hawkins told BBC: "We have a contract with the Premier League to develop a system. It is purely for the referees and not for television."

He added: "The process is to be evaluated firstly by the Premier League and then Fifa, the game's world governing body. If we jump those hurdles then there will be a slow role of trying it out in matches and, hopefully, with the end game of it being in all the Premier League grounds."

Hawk-Eye can currently be seen in action at Wimbledon, where it is being used to judge if a ball is in or out.

In cricket the system helps with determining if a player has been run out or not.

It also predicts if a ball would have hit the stumps in leg before decisions but this is not available for umpires to call upon for assistance.

Hawkins expects football to adopt his invention in two years' time, if the tests prove successful.

Hawkins said: "It will be tested next month and the process will evolve from there.

"It took a couple of years in tennis from the start of tests to it being used and we can probably expect the same timeframe."

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) gave the go-ahead for the development of goal-line technology in March after a Premier League presentation.

But the IFAB ruled that the technology could only be used for goal-line decisions and it would have to be 100 percent accurate, instantaneous and only available to match officials.

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