UEFA had a meeting today at their headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland where they officially made the decision to use goal-line technology for this season’s Champions League final in Milan on May 28th and Europa League final in Basel on May 18th.
This is a huge move for the sport to make sure the most critical calls of games are made accurately. Goal-line tech was already used in the most recent women’s and men’s FIFA World Cups and will be in place for the 2016 Euros this year. So this approval for the Europa and Champions League final is really the last domino for the tech to be widely accepted around the soccer world.
In January, UEFA approved goal-line tech for Euro 2016 this summer and we were hoping this would be a trendsetter for other leagues. Perhaps now with the news today that goal-line tech will be expanded further into the sport, more leagues and organizations around the world will be more receptive to adding similar technologies to their games to ensure accuracy.
Granted, other sports like baseball or American football come with different technological challenges to measure their key plays such as balls and strikes and touchdowns. But the same concept remains: technology can help eliminate wrong calls. UEFA seems to be fully aboard the technology bandwagon. Let’s hope this mindset spreads.
