For years now, world football fans have been questioning FIFA's decision to not consider goal-line technology, especially in high profile competitions such as the World Cup. After every tournament, you could make a list of mistakes made by officials, with a few of those involving the ball crossing the goal-line.
In FIFA's latest attempt to sort this issue out, they decided that having a fourth official on each end line would take care of it. Unfortunately, that did not resolve the issue. Instead, it had fans questioning what the need was for those fourth officials if they were unable to do their only job properly.
Watching Frank Lampard get denied a clear goal in World Cup 2010 was just one of many frustrations for football fans. Just like Lampard had his goal denied, many others across Europe have had to deal with the same problem. Ukraine was also not awarded a goal in the latest edition of the European Championship, ironically, it was against England.
We do not have to go back too far to take a look at the latest goal-line issue.
Last week at Celtic Park, Juventus' Matri slid the ball underneath the Celtic keeper, with the Celtic defender making a last ditch tackle to take the ball out of the net. The ball actually did not even travel that fast, making the decision fairly easy for the fourth official on the end line.
The ball clearly crossed the line before the Celtic player cleared it, but none of the officials signaled for a goal. Fortunately for Juventus, they had a second player close by who stuck the ball in the back of the net, giving the Italian's the lead.
What makes this situation even more interesting is the fact that Matri was awarded the goal, yet in the match, their was no indication from the referee that the initial shot had been counted as a goal.
It goes without saying that having goal-line technology will be a big help, but it could also slow down the match. Apart from potentially slowing down the match, their could also be issues with the technology on any given day.
As we have seen in the past, match officials have had issues with their communication head-sets before, so this goal-line technology will be no different.
Obviously which ever technology they choose to go forward with will have been tested thoroughly, but how will it work on a cold rainy day?
What if their is an issue at a vital moment in the match, leaving the referee to not only sort out the issue, but to also try and disguise the faulty equipment?
Knowing how technology works, the idea is simply brilliant and it can and should remove a lot of controversy from the game. But, with that said, their may also be a lot of other questions that will surface as the world's most popular sport transitions into a more technological era.
In the end, will goal-line technology be a stress reliever or will it cause more concern than before? Be sure to leave your opinion below, and also take a look at some other goal-line mishaps below.
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