While they don’t quite come up to the standard of even the worst pub team, they’re still pretty awesome. Think about the PC or mobile phone you’re reading this on and then think what that was like 10 years ago … now fast forward these robots 10 years and what can you see?

The 2009 Robocup was held between June 29th and July 5th in Graz, Austria. The competition is split into several categories, such as Carlos Tevez, sorry I mean Small, Middle and Wayne Rooney, sorry, Humanoid. By far the most interesting category however is the Standard Platform League. The other competitions are for machines that are remote controlled but for the Standard Platform all teams are provided with the same hardware and they must concentrate on software to control the bots because they have no human master, it’s the descendants of these that our great-grandchildren might see endorsing the latest boot or opening their own fashion boutique on the high street.

You can watch a game from this years finals on Youtube, but don’t expect it to be any better than an and of season game between two teams fighting over mid-table mediocrity. You can totally see where this is going to go though, especially when you look at last years hardware and see that it was the old Sony Aibo robot dog, this year it’s the humanoid looking Aldebaran Nao, it wont be too many years I don’t think before the robots on display would run a trick or two past those pub team players.

In 2005, Adidas tested a system they developed in conjunction with German company Cairos. Their idea involves planting cables in the pitch that give off a magnetic field that a sensor in the ball is able to pick up. The 2005 U17 World Cup in Peru gave the company insights into the shortcomings of their system and 2 years later they helf a seperate trial during the 2007 World Club Cup in Japan which was successful and is cited by many as proof that goal line technology can work. Adidas’s Head of FIFA Affairs was quoted at the time as saying

“Until now we are very satisfied, no ball was damaged, all the systems during the games worked and the players’ feedback here has been very positive.”

However, not everyone agreed and some of the players in the tournament complained that the ball did not “feel right” and wasn’t as easy to control as a normal ball.

Hawkeye, the company behind the systems used in Cricket & Tennis are also working to develop a version of their technology that works for football, working at Craven Cottage and Fulham’s training ground.

Hawkeye claims that their system is accurate even if only 25% of the ball is visible and works off multiple cameras and provides an audible signal to the referee if the ball crosses the plane of the goal, but doesn’t activate when the ball goes over the bar.

Hawkeye also appears to be the preferred system of the Premier League, their website quotes a Premier League spokesman as saying:

“We think [Hawk-Eye’s football system] is the right blend of simplicity and technology.”

The Hawkeye system would appear to match the IFAB’s criteria more closely as it requires no changes to the pitch the ball or other equipment, but until FIFA removes it’s technology blinkers and gets some forward thinking people in charge any system is just a folly, a research project for companies to plow their money into with very little chance of return.

Neither company is happy with IFAB’s decision to shelve goal line technology in favour of 2 more people for the crowds to hurl abuse at, Hawkeye’scheif boffin and MD, Paul Hawkins had this to say about compensation for the time and money they spent.

“We have spent about half a million pounds and have proved it works,” said Hawk-Eye managing director Paul Hawkins. “We think it’s reasonable that they should pay.”

Christian Holzer, chief operating officer of Cairos was equally unimpressed

“We have spent millions of euros and are really disappointed, Our system works but they didn’t give us any reason for stopping it.”

Pretty much anyone who’s anyone has had their comment, and the only people who think it’s a good idea to have extra eyes are Sepp Blatter & Michel Platini.

So check out their post and watch the video, well worth 3:38 of your time.

In March 2008 the IFAB

Why does IFAB hold such a fear of technology? Ever since it’s inception the IFAB has maintained that the appeal of football is it’s simplicity (despite what they did to the offside law) and that any introduction of technology complicates the game.

They also insist that the rules must be able to be applied at all levels of the game, and any technology must be able to be used right from the very top of the game to the bottom. However as any Sunday League player will tell you, they struggle to get a referee most weeks, and use spectators for linesmen, never mind finding another 2 officials to watch behind the goals, which is the current solution preferred by IFAB (or FIFA and it’s 4 IFAB votes at least). This idea will be tested during the 2009/10 Europa League where each match will have a total of 6 referees!

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter remains firm on his organizations anti-technology stance:

“We are too conservative and behind technology but we’re not so far behind tennis,” said Blatter. “In tennis, you stop the game. In football the game goes on, it never stops.”

It’s all too easy to pick holes in that argument, because football does stop. After every contentious decision players crowd the referee, arguing, shouting and intimidating him, it would take a lot less time to resolve it via a video replay. It works well for Rugby which is just a free flowing as football.

Controversial incidents are nothing new in football, and they usually involve England one way or another. They’re certainly involved in the 2 most famous incidents, the 1966 World Cup Final is probably best known for Geoff Hurst’s 3rd goal and in 1986 England were knocked out of the world cup by Argentina after Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal (But then he went and did this …)

However, it took until 1998 until FIFA asked the English FA to begin experiments with goal line technology to aid the referee which led to a statement from the League referee’s chief Philip Don which outlined his plan for a “force field of some kind” which would detect the ball crossing the line.

The subject was also discussed by FIFA in 1999, where they considered goal line technology, a 2nd referee and extending the duties of the 4th referee. 10 years later and we’re still in exactly the same position.

In 2003 Adidas started to develop their own intelligent ball, in conjunction with Cairos which involves burying wires in the pitch which generate a magnetic field of differing strengths. Using a sensor in the ball, computers can work out where the ball is and decide if it has crossed the line or not.

This system was successfully trailed in the 2007 World Club Cup in japan, and a seperate system was used in some matches during the 2008 Under 17 European Championship.

However, all plans for goal line technology were abandoned in March 2008 when Fifa voted to end all trials and replace them with another 2 humans to make mistakes behind each goal. Fifa and UEFA plan to use this system during the 2009/10 Europa League.