Yesterday we had our second very, very near goal ruled out by the new technology. The odds of it happening to the same team twice must be high and (hopefully) a third time phenomenal. As a cricket fan I’ve read loads about the accuracy of the technology used and now a little bit about Hawkeye which is being used in the football goal line decisions. Suffice to say there is an accepted margin of error. However, something else intrigues me as well. First though the actual incidents. Here is the Holtby one yesterday: please log in to view this image Link to pic: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkeH-9bCcAAcAHA.jpg:large And here is the previous one, Heitinga v Newcastle: please log in to view this image Link to pic: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiywynoCIAAMfhK.jpg The questions I have are; Who paints the white lines? And, are they consistently the same breadth?
I did a study on Goal-line technology for college a few years back and I think hawk-eye is correct to within 3.6mm. I don't think the line actually has anything to do with it. It's sensors on the posts that detect if the ball has passed. The line doesn't help us because we will see a picture of the ball which may bounce completely behind the line but the very left hand edge of the ball has to be past the post for it to be in. Since a ball is spherical it may not be touching the line but still be 'on' the line. Also for the record we suffered from the technology against West Brom too. The ref needed the technology to be sure that Vydra's shot had crossed.
