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Hawk-Eye awarded Premier League contract

By on April 11, 2013

Goal-line technology system Hawk-Eye have been awarded with a contract by the English FA, and will be used for the 2013/2014 Premier League season.   Hawk-Eye won the vote among representatives for the twenty Premier League clubs against goal-line tech systems GoalRef and Cairos, that will see the system installed in all twenty Premier League stadiums, including Wembley.  It will cost roughly £250,000 per stadium to install the British-based system, which was recently bought by tech giants Sony.

Hawk-Eye, which tells the referee whether a goal has been scored or not via a special watch, recently lost the bid to be installed at the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup to the German system GoalControl, despite being favored to be awarded the contract.  The British system was also favorites to win the contract for the Premier League, and the English FA invested in it’s development in 2007.  The system will be first used in the 2012/2013 Community Shield, and when used on the 2013/2014 Premier League season, it will be the time first goal-line technology is used in any domestic competition.

A Premier League statement said: “The Premier League is pleased to announce that it has awarded Hawk-Eye, the world’s leading provider of vision-processing instruments to sport, the contract to provide goal-line technology systems across its 20 member clubs and all 380 Barclays Premier League matches.

“The camera-based system will be installed during the close season ready for use on the opening weekend of the 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season – Saturday 17 August. This will be the first time that goal-line technology is used in any domestic competition.”

FA vice-chairman David Dein has backed Hawk-Eye, which uses seven cameras around the field to detect where the ball is.  “The Premier League will be the first league in Europe to introduce it,” Dein said at the Soccerex conference in Manchester.

“I have been on this campaign for six or seven years and now it’s going to happen.

“The referees need help, the camera will always beat the eye, and every referee in the Premier League is in favor of it.”

Although any other kind of goal-line tech is yet to be used in any other top-flight divisions across Europe, the head of the Spanish La Liga Francisco Roca Perez has said goal-line tech will be used in La Liga in a few years time.  “We are truly advocates for technology and we will look at the systems and the cost,” Perez said   “We are not going to be as quick as the Premier League but we are in favor of the system.

“I expect that in two or three years we will be able to do something like this either with technology that we buy or that we create ourselves.”

Hawk-Eye will be first used in the 2013/2014 Community Shield

Hawk-Eye will be first used in the 2013/2014 Community Shield

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.