'Superpuck to solve disputes in football - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

An entrepreneur has come up with an invention called 'Superpuck' that would be able to solve disputes over goal-line incidents and offside decisions in football. According to a report in the Scotsman, Robert Jamieson has come up with a "Superpuck" that is fitted with a transponder for use in ice hockey games. Jamieson believes the same technology could be adapted for football and that the device could have proved England's controversial third goal in the World Cup final in 1966 should never have stood. Jamieson came up with his bright idea while watching an ice hockey game with family friend, Elena Bielikova, while on holiday in Slovakia. "I was amazed that no-one had come up with a better method of accurately confirming close goal-line and offside decisions - not just in ice hockey but football too," he said. "In motorsport, a small transponder fitted to the racing car is used to give accurate times for laps around the track - to within a thousandth of a second. It struck me that this method would work perfectly well in ice hockey, so I set about modifying a standard puck to hold a small transponder," he added. "In a bizarre coincidence, Elena then told me that Vegum, the world's largest producer of hockey pucks, had a factory nearby in Slovakia. This then got me thinking," he said. "I returned to Peebles and a friend of mine helped me machine a puck and I even weighed it using the scales at Sainsbury's to check it was still 160kg when fitted," he added. When the "Superpuck" passes over a magnetic field - a loop fitted around the goal-frame - it registers a hit on a pitchside decoder. Each transponder is removable from the puck. According to Jamieson, "If this works in ice hockey, then it can also work in football too." "I hope to officially unveil it at the Ice Hockey Championships in Cologne this May before then approaching Fifa, the SFA and various other football organizations," he said. "Each goal frame would be fitted with a magnetic field, and our ball would contain four transponders, so as soon as the entire ball passes the line, then a goal is signaled," said Jamieson. "There's also the option to fit each player with a transponder which would settle offside rulings there and then," he added.