Sky Sports is broadcasting the match to selected pubs in the UK, and punters will need to don special glasses to see it in 3D [Insert Beer Goggles gag here]. There is no word if these goggles will be in team colours.

All this is the the prelude to Sky launching their own 3D channel, and from April they will be delivering 3D tellys to hundreds of pubs and will broadcast a premier League match every weekend (closely followed by every Monday, Tuesday & Thursday no doubt)

Sky is banking on 3D TVs becoming available later this year, and when they do they’ll roll out a dedicated 3D channel for HD subscribers. There’s no word on how much this 3D channel will cost, or how much the TVs will cost so I’m applying the saying “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”

“But Derrick, you don’t even like football”

“These Rodders are state of the art, they’ve got a grip and groove texture on the surface that gives unmatched flight characteristics, it’s the most stable and most accurate Adidas ball ever.”

“How do you know that Derrick?”

“It says so on the box Roddney you plonker.”

“Let me have a look at those. These are a bit heavy aren’t they?”

“That’s what gives them their extra stability Rodders, they’re proper cushty! These things are going to sell like hot cakes, they’re sold by Nelson Mandela!”

“Derrick, we live in Nelson Mandela Towers, that’s not the same thing.”

“This time next year Rodders, we’ll be millionaires! Luvley Jabulani!”

“Del, these are rugby balls.”

—

Buy an Adidas Jabulani, or an Adidas Jabulani Replica (But not from the Trotters! )

Watch the Adidas Jabulani being made.

While they seem allergic to any use of TV related technology on the field, FIFA have signed a deal with their Official Partner, Sony, to broadcast up to 25 matches in 3D, that’s 3 … D

Back in October Sony announced 2 systems for capturing 3D sports events, one that used a single camera to capture an image, and one designed for football that uses 3 separate cameras that get merged into 1 image by clever software.

The announcement doesn’t mention which technology is being used in the World Cup, but you’d have to assume it’s the one they designed especially for football.

The World Cup however won’t be the first sporting event to be broadcast in 3D, (it’s not being broadcast in 3D live at all by the look of it, Sony will distribute a film after the event.) that honour went to the peanut huggers when the 2008 6 Nations game between England and Scotland was shown in a London cinema. There are also plans to show parts of the 2012 Olympic games in 3D too.

The latest gadget doing the rounds is from Seattle Sports Science, based in, er, Seattle. The Sidekick is a device that lets coaches deliver the ball with accuracy every time.

Invented by boffins from Microsoft, IBM & Phillips The Sidekick can be used in drills for outfield players and goalkeepers alike. Defenders can practice defending long hoofs up the field, and goalkeepers can use it to improve their reactions, as seen in this video of The Dallas

A Brand New Toy from FC Dallas on Vimeo.

Back in October FIFA President Sepp Blatter indcated that FIFA were no longer totally opposed to goal line technology, and that Hawkeye might get the chance to demonstrate their technology.

“Now the inventor of Hawk-Eye has said publicly that his system would work. We will gladly take a look at it. He can demonstrate his system.”

We’ve covered various types of goal line tech in the past, but this would appear to put Hawkeye in the driving seat, but I wouldn’t expect this to be in Motty’s armoury when he’s commentating on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but maybe one of the lesser tournaments that follow.

Whatever happens, it won’t be the last time we talk about goal line technology.

First off there are restrictions placed by the police on local teams playing at home on the same day, they just don’t have the officers available to police both teams in Sheffield on the same day for example. The 2 Manchester teams face a similar problem as well as do various pairings in London.

The league also imposes a rule that means each team must play home and away at least once over the holidays which muddies the water even more and then they insist that none of the “paired” teams can play each other over the holidays either you start to get the impression they’re just trying to be awkward.

There isn’t much detail on how they’ve managed to acheive this, but they do point out that Nottingham is one of the top 100 universities in the world, and in the UK’s top 10. Find out more about that here.

(Thanks for the tip off Lee)

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.

Nike launched their new Mercurial Vapor boot, retailing for about £129 and comes with soft or hard ground cleats. The image on the left shows the firm ground cleats and the more conservative black and yellow colourway, but as usual with these things they come in all sorts of whacky colours, if you choose the orange or lime green variety, you’d better get yourself some good shin pads too!

If you’re feeling particularly frisky why not go for the Superfly version of the boot for an extra £100? That extra cash gets you Nike’s Flywire technology. Inspired by a suspension bridge, Flywire is a thread developed in house by Nike that’s designed to help shoes offer both good support while remaining lightweight. Nike claim this long stitching acts like an extra ligament to guide the joints in the foot in the right direction and have come a long way from the duct tape across the designers feet mentioning in this article from Nike.

Over the summer Adidas have refreshed their Predator boot with the Predator Powerswerve TRX, and as usual they come with firm and soft ground versions. The predator TRX comes with Adidas’ Dynamic Power Pulse system which shifts weight in the boot to “the exact point of impact”, with the ball I assume, “to get total power transfer”, sounds expensive, and it is at £129.99 but all it means is that there is a little weight at the front of the boot to move it’s center of gravity further forward.

The predators also include smart foam which adapts and changes to the way you kick the ball, so you get more power or more shock absorption, whichever you need. Cutting through the marketing jargon, what this means is that because the foam deforms, it gives you a longer contact with the ball, making it easier to control the ball, and the rebound as the foam takes it’s shape again gives your shots a bit more power.

Reebok’s top of the line boot, the Valde Pro retiails at £99.99 and, wait for it, comes in soft & firm ground flavours. It’s headline grabbing feature to try and win your hard earned pound notes is it’s Power Unit, it’s basically a stiffer boot to keep your feet in the right shape while your playing. The Power Unit also adds power to your shots (is there anything that doesn’t?)

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.

“I think everyone – fans, players and media – believe that simulation is unacceptable, and I am sure this change will be appreciated by the whole football community,” said Football Federation Australia (FFA) CEO Ben Buckley.

Other leagues currently use video evidence to hand out disciplinary punishments to players, but usually only if the referee doesn’t mention it in his match report. The English leagues regularly use video evidence to punish players for serious foul play and clubs can submit video evidence to the FA when they appeal against a red or yellow card.

It remains to be seen if any other countries copy the Australians, but I can’t imagine many fans being against the idea, but let us know in the comments, either way.