Federer: Football needs technology, tennis doesn't
Reuters - Monday 28 June 2010, 16:27
LONDON - A controversial
goalline
decision at the World Cup only served to back up what Roger
Federer already suspected - that football needs replay technology
and tennis does not.
The case for introducing
technology to aid football referees
was brought into focus on Sunday when England's Frank Lampard
was not awarded a goal in the match against Germany despite the
ball clearly crossing the line.
England went on to lose the
second-round match 4-1, but the
decision not to allow Lampard's first-half strike was a major
talking point.
HawkEye, which is used to
decide whether a ball has landed
in court, was first used at Wimbledon in 2007, but FIFA
president Sepp Blatter - a Swiss compatriot of Federer's -
opposes introducing a similar system for football.
Federer, a long-time critic of
the HawkEye system in tennis,
said the significance of goalline decisions meant it was high
time football followed tennis's lead.
"We have electronic line
calling even though we don't need
it," the Swiss said after waltzing into the quarter-finals at
the All England Club with victory over Austria's Jurgen Melzer.
"They should have it, and they
don't. So it's a choice the
guys have to make at the top. I think it's rough. To me it seems
like it's just crying (out) for a change.
"One forehand down the line
doesn't change the outcome of
the match; whereas one goal changes the entire mindset of a
team, of a strategy."
Federer said tennis had line
judges whose only job was to
oversee line calls and so HawkEye was unnecessary.
"Guys are sitting there, not
moving. They're only staring at
the line. It's so much more simple. It's going to even out
throughout a career or a season, the good and bad calls.
"Whereas goals, it's such a
huge impact in those 90 minutes.
It changes everything."
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