Goal-line technology to hit Premier League next season?

Goal-line technology may be headed to the Premier League as soon as the start of the 2012-2013 season.

That’s according to Alex Horne, the FA’s general secretary, who has revealed that the Football Association have begun trialing a number of different goal-line monitors, including the same Hawk-Eye kit that silences would-be John McEnroe’s at the Wimbledon tennis tournament each year.

“It’s possible we could see [goal-line technology] in the Premier League as early as 2012-13” Horne told the BBC.

“It’s easy to make mistakes and we’ve all seen examples where the referee and assistant referee can’t see if a ball has crossed the line or not. We need to support them in decision-making.”

However, Horne revealed the FIFA bureaucracy and the sheer cost of the equipment could hold back the uptake of the technology.

“Whether there is enough time for the technology to be bought, paid for and put into any league or competition for next season, I’m not sure. It would be really tight – but it might be possible for next season,” he concluded.

13 companies are said to be in the running to bring the technology to pitches up and down the UK.