Pioneering research by a team at the University of Surrey could change the future of football and make travesties like Frank Lampard's disallowed World Cup 2010 goal a thing of the past.

Professor Adrian Hilton leads a team that develop visualisation techniques. The same technology has been used in blockbuster films including Harry Potter, Walking with Dinosaurs and the Batman series. Hilton explains:

"we use our scanning technology to reconstruct a 3D model of the scene, like a computer graphic, which commentators can use to render any viewpoint. So when they're talking about a particular instant in, say, a football game, they can view it from the sideline, or the referee's perspective, or the goalie's - even if there wasn't a camera there."

The BBC is currently trialling the technology. Hilton is confident that any problems will be philosophical rather than technical. He said:

"In principle the iview system can also solve specific goal-line issues, but the main reason it wasn't used in the World Cup was the approval of the governing bodies rather than the technology itself."

Uefa's president, Michel Platini, has claimed introducing goal-line technology will lead to "PlayStation football". And the FIFA board is divided on the issue. Although FIFA president Sepp Blater is slowly coming around the idea.

So, whilst the debate is raging, we've collated a little list of travesties that could have been avoided to promote the discussion.



England v West Germany, 1966 World Cup

England's third goal in the 1966 World Cup between England and West Germany is probably the single most controversial goal decision that any English football follower will name.

With 20 minutes left the score was two all. The German goalkeeper Hans Tilkowski leapt to catch the ball booted by Geoff Hurst but it slipped from his fingers, hit the post and bounced down on the inner side of the line. Watch footage from a slightly different angle here.

Listen out for the silken tones of commentator Hugh Johns: "IT'S A GOAL, YES, YES. NO, NO. THE LINESMAN SAYS NO. THE LINESMAN SAYS NO." He goes quiet for moment and we watch the linesman and the referee conferring - this is an interesting process since they are Russian and Swiss and don't share a common language. After a few moments Johns resumes his oratory: "IT'S A GOAL. OH THE GERMANS GO MAD AT THE REFEREE."

The Germans have never forgiven us. Maybe some belated goal-line analysis proving that it really was a fair goal might heal the wound?

Frank Lampard, England v Germany 2010 World Cup



This video says it all really. This decision was the greatest travesty of the 2010 World Cup. The ball went over the line but the assistant couldn't see it from where he was at the time. Watch the video and weep.

Pedro Mendez, Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur 2005



Goalie Rory Carroll tries to save it but loses his grip and drops the ball over the line but the ref disallows it prompting the commentator to declare "That is a travesty. Should this have been a goal? I think there was no question about it."

Reading v Watford, Championship 2008



You've got to love the sarky commentary on this footage. With the commentator describing Readings opening goal as "the most extraordinary goal that Reading or anyone will score this season. Watch carefully to see when the ball crosses over the line," he says, "that's right, it goes nowhere near the line."

Liverpool v Chelsea, Champions league 2005

This is a difficult one to call, Liverpool's Luis Garcia shoots, but Chelsea's William Gallas hooks it away from his position on the goal line. It's not clear from the footage whether the goal was inside the line or not when Gallas made contact with it. The incident was dubbed a "ghost goal", with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho describing it as "a goal that came from the moon". Post match analysis by motion expert Dr Mike Spann from Birmingham University's Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering department came down on the side of the referee.

Coventry v Crystal Palace, 1980



Memories are long in this game. The Germans have never forgiven us for "stealing" the third goal in 1966, and Crystal Palace fans still bemoan the denial of this goal by Clive Allen - it went in, hit the stanchion, and bounced quickly out again before the ref could see it - in 1980. Will Professor Hilton's technology prevent future "ghost goals" turning into festering boils of doubt?