“It’s not possible for things like that to happen,” exasperated Lucas Hernandez. The scene has indeed become rare at the highest level of European football. On Tuesday, France conceded a draw against Greece in Athens (2-2) in their last match of the Euro 2024 qualifiers. And the Blues have reason to feel cheated: they were denied a goal in the 89th minute. minute, on a deflected cross from Kingsley Coman. The ball appears to have crossed the goal line before emerging. The referee (Daniel Siebert) could not count on the goal-line technology to check whether his decision was the right one.
Goal-line technology has, however, been officially in force since the 2014 World Cup. It was the Blues who named it, with a goal validated by Karim Benzema during France- Honduras in the group stage (3-0). But then why was she absent from a match in a competition organized by UEFA?
“It costs too much,” bitterly launched coach Didier Deschamps, when his player Antoine Griezmann railed against UEFA which “has a lot of money but can’t get everything right so that we know whether there is a goal or not. According to RMC Sport, it was in fact in a desire to save money that the goal-line technology was not installed. But the choice is that of the Greek federation, and not UEFA.
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The system is mandatory in the final phase of the Euro, but it is not mandatory during the qualifiers. It is up to the federation of the receiving team to activate so that the system is authorized. He then needs “the agreement of the visiting team and the approval of UEFA” then “assume all resulting costs”, as we can read in the UEFA regulations. Goal-line technology requires the installation of several small cameras, in the stadium and around the cages. They send a signal to a central computer which vibrates the referee’s connected watch as soon as the ball crosses the line.
Surprising fact: VAR (video assistance to refereeing) was operational in Athens. The referee, Mr. Siebert, listened to his video assistant in the headset before confirming that the goal was not validated. On the images available, no angle was considered convincing enough to certify the third French goal.
However, there are no technical obstacles at the Opap Arena, the stadium of AEK Athens which competes in the Europa League where goal-line technology is compulsory in each match. This choice of the Greek federation may have deprived France of a victory and therefore of first place in the FIFA rankings. Fortunately, there was no qualification at stake.