Peter Grove
RefChat Addict
This is an interesting (and slightly troubling) one. In a French Ligue Un game, a GLT decision was overturned after the referee realised the system had malfunctioned.
http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2017/12/17/5a367efb468aeb66228b45f0.html
Despite the headline in the Marca report, the system in use was not Hawk-Eye, the French league uses a rival system from a German company called Goal Control GmbH.
Here's a link with video of the incident.
https://streamable.com/7jqa1
There is a link containing the referee's account of the incident on the Troyes website:
After Match Interviews
The ref's words are in French, here's my attempt at a translation:
"I'm going to try to explain what happened. There was a ball that rebounded off the bar. The watch didn't vibrate straight away, it took a few seconds to do anything. When it vibrated, I immediately stopped play. Given the delay between the ball hitting the line and the watch vibrating, I used a protocol that allows us, along with a delegate, to check the reliability of the GLT system. I had a doubt about what had happened, about the delay between the ball hitting the line and the moment the watch vibrated. It took a little while to finalise discussions between the GLT technicians and the delegates. The first information I got was that the goal was good. Amiens then expressed a technical reservation (objection?). So the match delegate got back together with the GLT technicians and they reversed the decision. As I had already blown the whistle, I had to apply the law and give the ball to the Amiens goalkeeper for a goal kick."
I'm not 100% sure of the last bit, it says "sortie de but" which I believe means goal kick but if so, then I think the ref chose the wrong restart. As he says, he blew the whistle before the second shot where the ball entered the net so I think the restart should have been a dropped ball?
Incidentally, after doing a bit of Googling, I found that this is not the first time this Goal Control system has malfunctioned. According to L'Equipe, they reckon there have been seven instances of mistakes with the system including at least two where the referee's watch vibrated to indicate a goal when the ball hadn't crossed the line and some where video seems to show the ball definitely crossed the line and the watch didn't vibrate. The French Ligue Professional de Football has apparently already told Goal Control that if they don't sort out the problems, they won't renew their contract for next season.
http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2017/12/17/5a367efb468aeb66228b45f0.html
Despite the headline in the Marca report, the system in use was not Hawk-Eye, the French league uses a rival system from a German company called Goal Control GmbH.
Here's a link with video of the incident.
https://streamable.com/7jqa1
There is a link containing the referee's account of the incident on the Troyes website:
After Match Interviews
The ref's words are in French, here's my attempt at a translation:
"I'm going to try to explain what happened. There was a ball that rebounded off the bar. The watch didn't vibrate straight away, it took a few seconds to do anything. When it vibrated, I immediately stopped play. Given the delay between the ball hitting the line and the watch vibrating, I used a protocol that allows us, along with a delegate, to check the reliability of the GLT system. I had a doubt about what had happened, about the delay between the ball hitting the line and the moment the watch vibrated. It took a little while to finalise discussions between the GLT technicians and the delegates. The first information I got was that the goal was good. Amiens then expressed a technical reservation (objection?). So the match delegate got back together with the GLT technicians and they reversed the decision. As I had already blown the whistle, I had to apply the law and give the ball to the Amiens goalkeeper for a goal kick."
I'm not 100% sure of the last bit, it says "sortie de but" which I believe means goal kick but if so, then I think the ref chose the wrong restart. As he says, he blew the whistle before the second shot where the ball entered the net so I think the restart should have been a dropped ball?
Incidentally, after doing a bit of Googling, I found that this is not the first time this Goal Control system has malfunctioned. According to L'Equipe, they reckon there have been seven instances of mistakes with the system including at least two where the referee's watch vibrated to indicate a goal when the ball hadn't crossed the line and some where video seems to show the ball definitely crossed the line and the watch didn't vibrate. The French Ligue Professional de Football has apparently already told Goal Control that if they don't sort out the problems, they won't renew their contract for next season.
