DAG technology is implemented at the goal line and to determine if a goal has been scored or not
In Spain, implementing this technology would cost about 2 million euros in the First Division
The controversial goal validated at the Cornellà-El Prat stadium, the RCDE Stadium, between Espanyol and Atletico Madrid (3-3) this Wednesday generated the debate on VAR technology to validate (or not) ‘ghost’ goals in which there is no complete certainty that the ball has crossed the goal line despite all the television shots available from the video arbitration room.
In this sense, there is a technology that the IFAB has implemented for years, and it is called the Automatic Goal Detection (DAG)GLT for its acronym in English: goal–line technology).
This technology allows you to instantly determine whether or not the ball has completely crossed the goal line. The DAG system applies only to the goal line and only to determine if a goal has been scored.
“The International Football Association Board requires that this technology not interfere with play, so it has been arranged that the signal indicating whether or not the ball has completely crossed the line is sent only to the referee“, says the FIFA page about it.
“The device shall indicate if a goal has been scored immediately and confirm it automatically in a maximum time of one second, data that will only be transmitted to the refereeing team (by means of the referee’s watch, by vibration and visual signal); it can also be transmitted to the video room“, Add.
In this sense, the Rules of the Game point out that “the use of these systems must be regulated in the competition regulations”, and The Spanish League, for now, does not include it.
Thus, several international competitions have this type of technology. Some information indicates that its implementation in Spain would cost two million euros for the 380 games that the Spanish First Division has per season, and the same amounts in Second. That amount, according to the information, would have to be assumed directly by the Professional Soccer League.
In the past, the RFEF implemented the technology in the 2020 Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, by the technology provider Hawk Eye, on a trial basis. In that case, the cost of implementing the technology was borne by the Federation.