Hawk-Eye firm hopes for 'phantom goal'

Hawk-Eye chiefs are hoping for a Frank Lampard-like "ghost goal" at the Club World Cup, its managing director said Saturday, as the goal-line technology prepares to make its competitive debut.

It was the England midfielder's disallowed, long-range effort against Germany at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa which galvanised FIFA into pursuing a scientific solution to proving whether or not the ball had crossed the line.

The football world body is trialling two technologies at the showpiece club event -- GoalRef, which was used for the first time in a match ever on Thursday, and Hawk-Eye, debuting Sunday in the match between Ulsan Hyundai and Monterrey.

FIFA billed Thursday's match as a "revolution", but the lack of close calls meant it passed with few clues about the success or failure of GoalRef, which uses magnetic fields around the goal and a special ball fitted with a chip.Bosses at Hawk-Eye, which is familiar due to its decade-long use in tennis and cricket and uses cameras to track a ball's position and trajectory, are hopeful its introduction will be considerably more dramatic than its rival's.

"We have proved the technology's ability to FIFA during the installation tests in the run-up to the tournament," Steve Carter, of the British-based but Sony-owned Hawk-Eye Innovations, told a press conference in Toyota. "But obviously it would be very very nice to have a 'phantom goal' moment at some point during this tournament so we can show to the world how effective this system is," he added in response to a question by AFP.

AFP