The German Football League (DFL) said on Monday that Germany has "opted not to bring in" goal-line technology after the clubs from the top two divisions "voted against it," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. DFL President Reinhard Rauball said, "I can announce the clubs of the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga opted to do without it." He said that half of the top-flight clubs "had voted in favour but a two-thirds majority was needed." In the 2nd Bundesliga "only three of the 18 teams had voted for technology to come in." Rauball: "This issue is off the table for now." German referees "had backed the idea of putting a tiny camera on the line in order to avoid human error." DFL CEO Christian Seifert said, "This was a democratic vote and we have to accept it. But the professionalism of the Bundesliga does not depend on the introduction or not of goal-line technology." The Premier League became the first domestic league to use technology in August. Goal-line technology will also be used at the World Cup in Brazil (REUTERS, 3/24). HANDELSBLATT reported Rauball said that according to a study by the Technical University of Munich, "goal decisions represent only 5% of controversial scenes in a game." The rest are "fouls, offsides and other rule violations." The camera-based system would have had a price tag of €500,000 ($688,600), while the system using a magnetic field would have cost a maximum of €250,000 ($344,300) for a period of three to three-and-a-half years (HANDELSBLATT, 3/24).
