It may sound surprising but there is a research team in Hungary whose members are happy to see increasing numbers of mistakes made by referees in the world of football. László Maruzsi could not have been delivered a nicer name day present than the England-Germany and Mexico-Argentina matches at this year's World Cup.

In the England-Germany match the German goalkeeper fished the ball out from beyond the goal line, yet the referee did not allow the goal, while in the Mexico - Argentina match, Argentina were allowed a goal which was clearly offside, thus while allowing the Argentineans an offside goal kicked a metre from the goal post, thus destroying the Mexican team's hopes of victory. 

Although a lot of people would like to see a video referee on the pitch, László Maruzsi initially thought of implanting chips into the ball, but since the system could not be secured precisely in its centre he had to find another solution. The essence of the development is the division of the pitch into twelve parts, each of which is monitored by a camera that sends signals through an optical cable to a central computer.

The computer is able to detect if the ball goes off the pitch and then sends a signal to the assistant's flag.  In the event of a goal the green light flashes, while a red light indicates the ball crossing over the goal line and touch line. The referees thus receive technical help so that they do not have to stop the game even for a minute.

"FIFA requested three things: that the game should not be stopped, that there should be no need for communication and that the system should work with 150 percent efficiency," explains project manager András Kovács. Work is presently being carried out on the final technical details since the system will only be introduced to the world of football if it is perfect. During the development work it became clear that far more sensitive lenses needed to be devised for the cameras since on the borderlines between sunny and shaded areas of the pitch the camera regularly lost sight of the ball. The problem has now been solved and the team is focusing on making the eye of the camera and the centre of the lens come together in one point. A deviation of even one hundredth of a millimetre is enough to prevent the camera from precisely "seeing" the ball.    

Recognising when a player is in an offside or onside position will be the next step in the project. Judging this is subjective. FIFA experts also have to agree what they should indicate if there is a dispute in regard to a given player being active or inactive in the game and to what extent such a player presents an obstruction to the opposing team.

László Maruzsi has been working heart and soul on this project for seven years and at times the project manager has to bring him back to earth. "Laci would like there to be big changes all at once but the governing body of this sport are extremely conservative. Of the eight members four are British and four are from FIFA but they have only one compounded vote so it is enough for one of them to vote against the proposal to prevent it from going through. This invention can only be introduced gradually. In the first round we have to make sure that the system can decide with certainty if the ball has gone past the goal line or not."

FIFA reached a decision in July: it will increase the number of referees by two and will soon examine four existing goal line technology developments.  László Maruzsi has not yet been informed officially but on the basis of earlier negotiations he thinks that his invention will be included among them. Of course any chance of success would require concerted sports diplomacy. The new leadership of MLSZ (Hungarian Football Federation) would presumably be a partner in this and in addition Maruzsi has a good relationship with László Vágner, the president of the federation's referee committee.    

"Enquiries have also come from the organizers of the American professional ice hockey championship but I would prefer the Maruzsi System to be accepted by football first. This system has to be a new 21^st-century Rubik cube. I cannot even imagine that the system won't be introduced but even then I won't be selling the invention. I would rather have this buried with me than for it not to be employed as a Hungarian invention."