In a letter dated 14th February and addressed directly to the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Blatter stated, “Please convey my warmest wishes to all of the players, the technical and medical staff, and in particular to Stephen Keshi – only the second man to lift the trophy as both captain and national team coach.
Stephen is a great example to other African associations of what they can achieve through long-term planning and employing local coaches, and I commend your appointment. I would also like to extend special greetings and thanks to the Nigeria fans present at the final, whose support not only willed their team on to victory but also lit up the match as a spectacle.”
FIFA awards third goal-line technology licence
Also on Monday FIFA said that it had handed out a third licence for revolutionary goal-line technology (GLT), as football’s governing body seeks to have a system in place in time for next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil.
FIFA has put the system out to tender and earlier this month announced that two providers — Goalref of Germany and Britain’s Hawkeye — had already been licensed under its Quality Programme for GLT.
The organisation has now picked German company Cairos as the winner of a third licence as part of efforts to reduce controversial refereeing decisions.
Goalref, which works by using magnetic sensors to determine whether the ball crossed the line, and Hawkeye, which uses a number of cameras, both had successful trials and were deployed at the Club World Cup in Japan in December.
Cairos creates a magnetic field behind the goal-line. Sensors in the ball then send information on its position to receivers, which in turn transmit a message in a fraction of a second to the referee to indicate whether a goal has been scored.
One or more successful GLT systems will be in use for the Confederations Cup in Brazil in June. A final decision on which technology will be used will be taken in April.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has pushed for goal-line technology ever since he watched Frank Lampard denied a legitimate goal in England’s defeat by Germany in the 2010 World Cup.
