Chelsea news: Ex-Fifa official has major concerns at Club World Cup experiment Arsene Wenger ‘instigated’
Keith Hackett has admitted he has concerns as Chelsea are set to be part of the Fifa Club World Cup’s experiment with automatic offside decisions.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee claimed Arsene Wenger has insisted on the technology but it may be being rushed through.
Cameras placed on top of the stadium use a limb-tracking system that could see offside decisions be made within half of a second.
It will be in place when Chelsea face Al-Hilal in the Club World Cup semi-final tomorrow (9 February).
“The thing that I think is appropriate is it goes through the right protocols,” Hackett told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“From me stating that I want goalline technology it took a year for it to be in a position to operate successfully. It then took a further five years to convince the IFAB we could operate it.
“This all seems to me to be a little bit rushed. I love the technology but is this going to be a step too far?
“They want to see the same level of accuracy where nobody questions it and it’s almost fail-safe.
“I think there are lower-level competitions where this system could be experimented with. There’s a rush and an urgency to get it in which might be fraught with problems.
“We’re all looking forward to seeing how it operates. If they’re going to introduce technology they’ve got to discount the match official within the process. That was the brief I save hawkeye on goalline technology.
“I want a process that doesn’t give me a ‘No’, it only tells me when a ball is over the line.
“There are sufficient people like Wenger around it who are confident in it. I think he’s instigated this.”
In other news, Chelsea have been tipped to accept a ‘£25million’ offer from a Premier League rival for a red-hot player.