USA to lead the way on goal-line technology

The head of the U.S. Soccer Federation, Sunil Gulati, said Monday that he is willing to have Major League Soccer experiment with technology to help reduce on-field official errors.After the weekends two controversial calls, and the U.S. suffering two disallowed goals of it’s own, the USSF has made a clear stance.“Referees haven’t gotten worse; technology has gotten a lot better,” Gulati said.Almost every other sport in the world has adopted changes in relation to technology. Grand Slam tennis tournaments use Hawk-eye, a high-speed camera system, for line calls, the National Football League lets coaches request a limited number of video reviews, the National Hockey League uses replays to asses disputed goals, the NBA uses replays to determine if a last-second shot was made before the buzzer and even Major League Baseball, which has been notably resistant of technology, has allowed limited use of replays to asses borderline homeruns.With every other sport realizing the importance of technology, at least in regards to scoring, FIFA has had quite a lot to defend in the last few days for their steadfast refusal to even consider the addition of goal-line technology."We obviously will not open any debate. This is obviously not the place for this," FIFA spokesman, Nicolas Maingot, told a large and hostile group of journalists at the daily tournament briefing Monday.But even before these recent errors FIFA had shunned any sort of progress when it came to updating the officiating capabilities of the game."Let's leave football with errors," Blatter said in 2008 when experiments with goal-line technology and video replay were halted by FIFA's rules panel, the International Football Association Board.If MLS’s experiments with new technologies have a positive affect on the game it will only be a matter of time before other leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga and FIFA will have to come around.