Goal line technology back on the table says Blatter

“I deplore when you see the evident referees’ mistakes,” Blatter told reporters. “It has not been a five-star game for referees. I’m distressed by the evident referees’ mistakes.”

The two teams paid the price for FIFA’s resistance to upgrade its officiating at this World Cup when they were eliminated in the round of 16 after obvious mistakes by the referees.

England was denied a clear score against Germany when Frank Lampard’s shot rattled off the crossbar and bounced well beyond the goal-line. Television cameras showed clearly — in real time — what the referee and his assistant were not in position to spot. Later that same day, Argentina was erroneously awarded a goal against Mexico when forward Carlos Tevez’s score was allowed to stand despite the fact that the Argentine was clearly offside.

A replay of Tevez’s goal was shown on the stadium video screens in Soccer City, prompting outraged Mexican players to confront the referee. The video operators are under strict instructions from FIFA not to replay controversial calls on the stadium screens, but they have done so on numerous occasions during this tournament.

“I apologized to England and Mexico,” Blatter said. “The English said ‘thank you’ and accepted that you can win and you lose, and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it.”

He also said he would renew discussions about technology to determine if a goal was scored, as was the case in the England-Germany game, but not video replay that would have ruled out the Argentina goal against Mexico.

“The only principle we are going to bring back for discussion is goal-line technology,” Blatter said. “For situations like the Mexico game you don’t need technology.”

The issue will be taken up in July, in Cardiff, Wales, when the International Football Association Board meets to discuss rule changes. Last December, this same body decided against upgrades for the 2010 World Cup.

Blatter’s statement on Tuesday marks a departure from the decision last year and a shift from the statement on Monday by FIFA’s general secretary that the use of video “is definitely not on the table.”

“We didn’t say you could have a zero-fault system in the World Cup,” Jérôme Valcke, the general secretary of FIFA said Monday. “Additional assistants could happen in 2014 to make sure these kind of things are not happening in refereeing. “

He continued: “It doesn’t mean the use of video, that is definitely not on the table today, but one thing we are discussing is two additional assistants to support referees to make decision-making easier and to have more eyes helping him to make such decisions.”

Before this tournament started, Blatter reiterated his position against video replay — and other forms of in-game technology.

“We want to keep football as a game of the people with a human face, so we don’t want technology on the field of play because we want to maintain the spontaneity of football — played, administered and controlled by human beings,” Blatter said.

But numerous mistakes by those human beings that have cost teams goals in crucial games have forced Blatter into reconsidering.

“It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup,” Blatter said, “it would be nonsense not to reopen the file on goal-line technology.”