(CNN) -- While football fans were dumbfounded earlier this month when referee Mark Clattenburg failed to award a goal to Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pedro Mendes, a small German company was quietly pleased.

Clattenburg's failure to see what was --as shown in replays -- clearly a goal from 50 yards, infuriated followers of the English Premiership game against Manchester United.

But for Cairos Technologies it was the kind of advertising that money cannot buy.

The Karlsbad-based company has developed a tiny radio chip that fits inside a football and determines whether the ball has crossed the goal line, by being able to pinpoint its exact location on the pitch.

The idea has been in the making since 1999, when a group of soccer-mad German friends saw a similar blunder by a referee in their own country during a premiership game.

"We thought there must be some kind of technology that would be able to tell when the ball has traveled across the goal line," said Oliver Braun, one of the founders of Cairos Technologies.

The group began investigating options, including using lasers and light barriers to determine the ball's position, before settling on the idea of using a chip inside a ball.

The chip, which with the battery that powers it weighs 12 grams, transmits 2,000 signals a second to a receiver network of 12 antennas, placed around the pitch, including on light fixtures.

The receivers then send information about the ball's location to a central computer, and because it works in real time, it can instantly tell the referee whether a goal has been scored, says Braun.

It also works in 3D so it can detect when the ball crosses the line in mid-air.

Braun says the way in which this information is communicated to the referee is yet to be decided, but it could be similar to the "vibrating sleeve," currently used by linesman when they want to talk to the referee, he says.

Braun says feedback from German referees, who were consulted during development, was generally positive.

Although the ball is close to completion, none of the parties involved with its development will comment on when it is likely to be used to prevent future disputes about goals.

FIFA, meanwhile, has put the subject of goal line technology on the agenda of its International Football Association Board's annual general meeting, to be held in Cardiff, Wales on February 26.

But while Braun is not clear on an exact timeline of his company's product, he is clear that the Clattenburg decision has definitely helped emphasize the need for such technology in the sport.

more:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/01/14/spark.football/index.html

Sounds like a good idea, along the same lines as video replays etc. Which incidentally i do agree with.

I agree they should have some system running soon otherwise we will have more "Carroll Incidents"

I'm in favor of this. They have the money, and it would really help solve controversial calls. Hockey sort of does it (they have replays), so there's no reason soccer shouldn't do it as well.

interesting to say the least!

oh ye, and thats why e-sports (ie. cs) will take off in such a big way, coz there cant really be any disputes due to the electronic nature of the sport and exact demorecording =)

they could also improve on it by adding some sort of small chip in a players shoe. also helps decide who kicked the ball out, same for the gloves of the goal keepers see if they had touched the ball

they could further enhance the sport by outlawing usage of the term 'SOCCER'

Too late to award us 3 point though, eh?

Bloody UTD.....

(I think this is a good idea - will stop blunders like this happening the future!)

Why would anyone be against this idea? Takes a lot of the guesswork out of things. I'd like to see something similar for football football (as opposed to soccer football ); those goal line quarterback sneaks are guesswork 99.8% of the time, in my opinion.

i disagree with it completely, football (soccer) as always been played without any chips or technologie things n thats what makes football as good as it

Bull****, it needs to move forward, like they used to play with pigs bladders, they dont now

yes i agree with you, even thow appleyard has a point and it does make the gane intersting it could also break your heart, what if your team was in the final in the world cup and the opposition got a penalty and scored from a tackle that wasnt a foul but the ref didnt see that, then you would be for ever

yes but the ball does not affect the out come of the games whereas this chip will and 'the referees decision is final' not the technological thing

lol of course it does, if you play with a plastic cheap ball as against a nike leather one, which one are you more likely to score goals with ?

yes but that will be the same for both teams whereas this chip is most likely going to help just one team

No, because thats pointless and not the idea!

appleyard, you are wacked up lol , how would it most likeley help 1 team, it doesnt have a brain, all it is going to do is decide if the ball crosses the line, doesnt matter which foot the ball hit last!!!

well what are the chances of the ball crossing the line and both being disalowwed?

wtf are you talking about man, plaease can any1 else see what this guy is talking about. i know wat you are saying but it is all bull**** you have no idea what you are talking about, this rule would make it fair. just becuase the ball would probably only pass the line and be disallowed once in a game and so that team would be favoured, well they should be anwyays becuase it did pass the line!!!! so say if it was man utd against leeds utd and leeds scored a goal but the goal was disalowed for not passing the line but in actual fact it did pass the line, then you would be really annoyed appleyard as i know you like this team. but this new chip would allow there to be no chances of teams loosing becuase of a ball crossing the line but the ref doesnt see that it does!!!

i totally agree with this rule and any1 who disagrees like appleyard is a plonker unless you excuse is that it has always been played without 1 and so it should continue, this is the only excuse there is of not liking the chip!!! so appleyard i advise you not to reply to this sayin i am wrong becuase it is YOU that is WRONG!!!

ur right i would be angry if that did happen but overall thats just the way it goes, it has always been like that and is a great game already which in my opinion does not need to be changed!

finally, so all youo other reaons was totally fu**ed up lol, just this 1 makes sence properly, well i dont agree with you, they changed the rule in rugby a while ago like using the tv to confirm things and apple, if football didnt change then we would still be playing with heavy chock off footballs!! it needs to move on like techonolgy does, its only fair, if leeds lost a final becuase of somehting like that i would be and i would never forget! it could mean the result of your team going bankrupt and loosing players and having to sell up

i understood all that until u sed it could mean they go bankrupt, how???

omg, you really dont know much about football if you are in a final you get some money and if you win you get alot more, well if the team is already in debt and are relying on winning to get them out of debt then you loose becuase of that insident i said above and your team then has to sell the players and the staduim to get out of it!!! it probably wouldnt happen lol but theres a chance it could and so if it did you would be ****ed off! another reason for having the chip

u dont loose money for not winnin a final match, u still get quite alot of money for gettin there in the first place

i know that, but im saying what if that money you get isnt enough and you have 2 win the final becuase those few extra thousands of pounds could cost your clubs survival!!!

lol