ICTs IN THE FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL 2014

The Automatic Goal Detection –DAG devices will be officially included in the next world cup by FIFA bringing more accuracy to the refs’ observations at the moment of determining if the ball did enter or not into the goal. GoalRef and Hawk-Eye systems are authorized by the FIFA’s Quality Program. Hawk-Eye is a British software already used in tennis: high speed cameras that generate a high definition image of ball path y send a signal to the referee once the ball enters the goal. Meanwhile, GoalRef technology is about a microchip placed into the ball and an electromagnetic field created from 10 sensors distributed along de goal line. Any change in this field behind the goal line sends a signal to the referee’s watch.

The telecommunications infrastructure is one of the most important aims of the Brazil government, therefore they are working very hard on the implementation of the 4G technology in all the host cities with a data transmission capacity around 100 megabytes per second and aiming at an entirely IP communication, ruling out any analogic system. In addition of the almost a hundred million mobile devices (IDC) expected to be used,

Many people is in disagreement with the use of technology in football, like automatic goal detection or Hawk-Eye, because it is a waste of time and pace, because the game would have to be stopped for the referee and assistant to analyze the images and make a decision, besides one of many emotions that football has is human error, it shakes and infects with mixed emotions to the fans. Anyway, FIFA consented to include technology in football, we have to wait to see what happens; we all want to enjoy this sport and no overshadowed results because of bad ref decisions.

...