Leading article: Stop the disputes and let the technology decide

With each new disputed "goal" in a major match, the football authorities' tardiness in instituting the technology that would settle matters conclusively becomes all the more regrettable.

Years after tennis, cricket and rugby embraced the aids that demanded to be made use of, the world's most popular sport continues to be riven with the kind of controversy that attended Saturday's FA Cup final when, with a few minutes to go and Chelsea leading 2-1, Liverpool's Andy Carroll had a goal disallowed that he and his club believe crossed the line. It was merely the latest in a series of such incidents in recent seasons.

Fifa, the game's world governing body, is edging towards introducing the necessary technology, but it is taking an eternity and there remains within football's upper echelons a resistance to the idea. With so much, in reputational and financial terms, now at stake, it must be fairer all round to let the technology decide.