PARIS: UEFA will introduce goal-line technology to its competitions in time for this season’s Champions League and Europa League finals, European football’s governing body announced on Friday.
A decision to bring in the technology (GLT) in time for Euro 2016 and for next season’s Champions League had already been announced in January, but will now also be in place for the Champions League final in Milan on May 28 and the Europa League showpiece in Basel, Switzerland, on May 18.
The technology, which determines whether the ball has completely crossed the line, is already used in the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, the German Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in France.
World governing body FIFA also brought it in for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil after a series of successful trials.
UEFA confirmed in January that GLT would be used in the European Championship in France in June and July and in the Champions League from next season, and added that it would likely ultimately be extended to all UEFA competitions.
However, former general secretary Gianni Infantino, now the FIFA president, has admitted that fitting all grounds with the necessary technology would be a logistical headache, particularly in a competition as extensive as the Europa League.
Even in countries where the technology is already in place, a different system is used in France to that used in England, Germany and Italy.
UEFA have said that, in conjunction with GLT, they will continue to use additional assistant referees to monitor activity in each penalty area.
UEFA to introduce goal-line technology for Champions League final
UEFA to introduce goal-line technology for Champions League final
Ex-heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria highway crash
- Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass
LAGOS: Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua suffered “minor injuries” in a fatal car accident that killed two people Monday, Nigerian police said.
Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass on the seats around him.
The circumstances around the wreck are “currently being investigated,” said police in Ogun state, just north of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, which throngs with visitors from across the country and diaspora each December.
Joshua “was seated in the rear of the vehicle, sustained minor injuries and (is) receiving medical attention,” the police statement said.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Daily Mail Sport he was on a family holiday and “awoke to the news of this incident.”
“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images,” he said.
Police said the wreck, in which two people in Joshua’s car were killed, occurred around 11:00 am, in the town of Makun, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said in a statement that the Lexus Joshua was riding in “was suspected to be traveling beyond the legally prescribed speed limit on the corridor, lost control during an overtaking maneuver and crashed into a stationary truck... by the side of the road.”
Witness Adeniyi Orojo told Punch news Joshua was traveling in a two-vehicle convoy, and was seated behind his driver.
“The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot,” he said.
The police gave the same toll, saying the two killed were “passengers in the vehicle” who “lost their lives at the scene.”
The names of the victims have not been released but a spokesman for the Ogun state governor said preliminary reports indicated they were “two male foreign nationals.”
Earlier this month Joshua knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a Netflix-backed bout in Miami.
The former Olympic champion Joshua has since been linked with a fight against compatriot and fellow former world champion Tyson Fury.
Joshua’s last fight prior to the match with Paul was a fifth round knockout loss to fellow Briton Daniel Dubois in September last year.
