Despite Platini’s repeated denials to use any goal line technology within UEFA competitions, Dutch is going to be the first European country to install one of the approved goal line technologies into their domestic league matches. Though, the use is only on trial basis that too not on all the matches being played in Dutch cup competitions, however, all major matches including relegation fixtures would have a tight eye of technology to find out if ball has actually crossed the line or not. Reportedly, Dutch has shortlisted Hawk-Eye as their preferred technology provider which uses seven high resolution cameras spread across both goal posts; these cameras can take the highest frame per second images to check ball’s exact location at any point of time. Similarly, FIFA has also declared to use German company’s GoalControl technology in coming Confederation matches, and if this trial gets succeeded, FIFA has plans to further extend its use in upcoming World cup.
On the other side, part from English Premium League, Dutch is the second big market to try the highly acclaimed ball tracking system. There is no confirmed news about how long such a trial will be carried out by both EPL and Dutch, but according to some insiders, both these governing bodies have plans to test the device for at least two seasons, and only after getting a complete satisfactory report from their technical divisions, they would decide to use it on a permanent basis. It has long been expected that Hawk-Eye technology would get even a larger market share inside Europe coz of its acceptance by the EPL; perhaps, we may hear more European regions to announce the use of this technology within their domestic league matches. For now, this trial project has been named as ‘Arbitration 2.0’ and has been allotted a budget of around €500,000. Initially, it would work like a virtual assistant to traditional referees to check if it can really help in those crucial moments.
Dutch football association further announces that this system will only be used in important matches, for the time being, coz of its high cost, its director of professional football, Bert van Oostveen, said, “It’s relatively expensive, so we need to spend the money wisely and know that it works. The KNVB is known to explicitly support the introduction of technological tools. We therefore went straight to work with the introduction of goal-line monitoring and have presented it to the clubs who were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.”