Since the first ever official game of football was played back in 1872, a goalless draw contested between England and Scotland in front of 4,000 spectators, not a great deal has changed in terms of the sport's laws and legislations. Of course, the sheer magnitude of football across the planet and the sums of money involved have increased rapidly over time, but the rules themselves in the main have remained constant.
Variations of the offside rule have altered, favouring strikers over defenders in recent times, while dismissible offences - going through the back of a player, for example - have also been more clearly defined. There was also the introduction of the Bosman ruling, changes to the number of foreign players who were allowed to be selected, and also the still-unclear Financial Fair Play regulations. The biggest change in modern times, however - on the pitch at least - came in 2012 when goal-line technology was given the nod.
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Talk had been ongoing for some time regarding the system, which is designed to help officials make the correct call 100% of the time, with football trailing behind other major sports in introducing the technology. The big catalyst came two years prior at the 2012 World Cup, when England's Frank Lampard saw his strike - which had quite clearly crossed the line - ruled out to spark real anger.
The Three Lions were always second best on that afternoon in Bloemfontein, but the fact that the outcome was essentially decided by an incorrect call made the eventual 4-1 loss even harder to take for Fabio Capello's men. Ironically, England themselves would benefit from another howler two years on at Euro 2012 when Marko Devic's shot appeared to have crossed the line before John Terry hooked it away, only for the officials to wave play on.
Still FIFA bigwigs relented, citing the high cost of rolling out the system and refusing to go the way of cricket, rugby league, rugby union, tennis and American Football by introducing the technology which would eradicate any human error when it came to on-the-line decisions.
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That was until, at least, on this day three years ago when after months of speculation the International Football Association Board gave it the thumbs up. A huge success on the whole, Ligue 1 will become the latest major league to roll it out in the coming season, following in the footsteps of the Premier League and Bundesliga.
Having first been initiated for the 2012 Club World Cup and the 2013 Confederations Cup, goal-line technology was not used at a major tournament until last summer's World Cup, in France's 3-0 victory over Honduras. Karim Benzema's shot came back off the post and in off goalkeeper Noel Valladares, causing confusion that was easily cleared up by the aid of cameras installed high in the stadium, which relayed the information back to the referee's wristwatch.
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Many had initially aired their fears that, by completely eliminating the risk of human error, the main topic of pub talk after matches had essentially been eradicated. Column inches surrounding 'ghost goals' and post-match anger vented at referees would be taken away from the game, though time has told us that controversial moments will always remain.
Talk in the years since has shifted more towards the launch of pitch-side replays to further help officials, yet that does not look to be in the pipeline anytime soon. Instead, football will first continue to acclimatise to the introduction of its first major change in a century, ending the days of the did-it didn't-it debate for good.
Daniel Lewis
