The goalkeeper's fear of the dodgy decision

14 February 2011 | By Ellie Zolfagharifard

This week, Briefing is donning a replica shirt and pouring a lager, and is hoping, just for once, that the referee’s decisions aren’t going to cause any outbursts of rage. Fortunately, the football authorities are on the case.

FIFA has this weekend completed its technical analysis of proposed goalline technology with results expected to be debated by the International FA Board meeting at Celtic Manor on 5 March.

The study follows calls from some sections of the football community for a technological solution after recent contentious goalline decisions. Frank Lampard’s discounted ‘goal’ for England in the match against Germany during last year’s World Cup in South Africa intensified the debate.

Companies such as Adidas have already worked with FIFA to test a system that uses a microchip inside the ball. The practicalities of using such a system are likely to need some work, but if approved, similar technologies could be incorporated into football regulations.

Elsewhere, technology to improve our power grids is coming under the spotlight. On Thursday, Alexander Micallef from Malta University will be at a meeting organised by the IET at the Maltese resort of St Julians, discussing the evolution of the smart grid and ways in which we can secure our electricity supplies. His talk will be split into two parts; the first providing an overview of smart grids and the second focusing on micro grids.

More views on energy sustainability will be expressed at the ‘Energy from Waste’ event on Tuesday in Hammersmith. Mike Groom, a waste to energy advisor, will describe how domestic waste is converted into electrical power in mass burn waste to energy plants. Currently England produces in excess of 26 million tonnes of domestic waste each year. Of this 3.6 million tonnes are processed by incineration.

On Wednesday, two Russian cosmonauts will step outside the International Space Station to install and retrieve experiments on the Russian segment and deploy a small ham radio satellite. During the six hour mission, the cosmonauts will collect information on seismic forecasts, gamma splashes and optical radiation. The spacewalk can be viewed on NASA TV at 1.45am GMT.

Finally, BAE Systems will announce its full year preliminary results on Thursday. The aerospace and defence group announced in December that it would cut 1,400 jobs in the UK following the government’s defence review in October.