World Cup: Fans support further review on goal calls
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Even before a number of controversial calls by referees conspired to mar this World Cup, a global survey of soccer fans found widespread support for the use of video replays on goal calls.
An online Nielsen Co. survey found 65% of respondents were in favor of replays at the World Cup, while about 1 in 10 people supported keeping the ban on them. The rest had no opinion on the matter, Nielsen said in a statement according to Bloomberg News.
Though sports including football, hockey, baseball, tennis, rugby and cricket use replays and other devices to aid decision-making, soccer has resisted adopting the technology. Sepp Blatter, president of soccer’s world governing body FIFA, said that the group would reconsider the matter at a meeting later this month.
The survey of more than 27,000 people in 55 countries, conducted from March 8 to March 26 -- three months before the World Cup had begun -- had a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage point.
-- Kevin Baxter in Johannesburg, South Africa