Football
Ian Holyman, France correspondent 6y

French league ends goal-line technology deal after problems

The French Football League (LFP) has confirmed to ESPN FC that it has ended its contract with the company supplying goalline technology in Ligue 1 after high-profile errors.

The LFP confirmed the details in a L'Equipe report on Wednesday -- which said the deal with GoalControl, due to run until 2019, had been cut short following a meeting between the two parties -- were correct.

"Given the numerous anomalies with the solution supplied by GoalControl, we have mutually agreed to immediately end the contract without any legal action or damages from either side," LFP CEO Didier Quillot wrote in an email to the body's administrative council members.

"A tender will be put out at the start of February to find the new provider of goalline technology. We will present the results of this tender to you during the administrative council meeting on 21 March."

Earlier this month, the LFP temporarily suspended goalline technology after two slips by the system on the same evening in the Coupe de la Ligue quarterfinals.

It failed to spot a Paris Saint-Germain goal during the match between Amiens and PSG and wrongly validated a goal that never was in the game between Angers and Montpellier.

Those incidents were not the first, with the Troyes-Amiens league game in mid-December held up for eight minutes after the system wrongly indicated that a goal had been scored.

A similar incident had happened in late September in the game between Rennes and Caen, one of a number of problems documented since the system's introduction for the 2015-16 season.

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