Branston offers fellow pros help

Branston offers fellow pros help

Published Apr. 9, 2013 9:15 a.m. ET

Football Association general secretary Alex Horne believes Premier League clubs will approve goal-line technology for next season at a meeting this week.

FIFA have appointed German company GoalControl to provide goal-line technology (GLT) at the Confederations Cup in Brazil this summer and, if successful, it will also be used at next year's World Cup finals.

Horne welcomes the introduction of GLT and expects Premier League clubs to give it the go-ahead for the 2013/14 campaign when they meet on Thursday.

"I always thought it was an ideal piece of technology to allow into the game," said Horne .

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"The [Premier League] club meeting is on Thursday so I'm expecting it to go through at that meeting."

Plans have been in place since last year when the Premier League met with the two currently-licensed GLT companies, Hawk-Eye and GoalRef, to install the system at top-flight matches.

The FA has given its backing to GLT and the Hawk-Eye system was trialled at Wembley last summer in England's friendly with Belgium, although the results were not made public.

Horne told the BBC: "There are occasions [when GLT is needed] and we've seen them here at Wembley, we've seen them in World Cups, we've seen them 11 or 12 times in the Premier League this season alone.

"So technology that says 'yes, the ball has crossed the line' and lets the referee know makes an awful lot of sense to me."

Reports claim that Manchester City will look to make a summer move for defender Willems with Guidetti going to Holland.

Guidetti was signed by City as a 16-year-old in April 2008 and has yet to make a senior appearance for the Premier League champions, having been severely affected by a virus suffered towards the end of last season.

However, now recovered and playing with the club's development squad, he is highly regarded and scored 20 goals in 23 games while on loan at Feyenoord last season, and he has already played for Sweden in a friendly against Croatia.

The Swede, though, has no intention of moving to PSV and told Sportwereld AD: "I will never, ever play for PSV.

"In the Netherlands, Feyenoord are the only club I would want to play for.

"Everyone knows that."

The 34-year-old set up the website allaboutballerz.com in 2012 with the intention of giving young kids and established pros the opportunity to showcase their talents by uploading video clips of themselves in action.

The site has gone viral in its first few months with Premier League stars Darren Bent, Shay Given and Brad Guzan among a number of high-profile players to upload their videos.

And Branston, who has seen one of his users earn a trial at a Championship club, wants players who will be grappling for a club in the summer to use the site to get noticed.

"It's about getting the word out there that you might be available," he said.

"Twenty seven moves later I am in that predicament in the summer where I am out of contract and I don't know what I'm doing.

"Football is about opinions and proving people right or wrong. Just because one manager doesn't like you doesn't mean they all won't.

"Come and have a look at allaboutballerz.com and we'll help you out as much as we can.

"If the players are getting noticed then it is up to them to prove they are good enough, we don't promise anything, we don't sell a dream, we showcase these clips and help them get seen. We want lads to get contracts and stay in the game.

"By uploading the clips they are letting people know that their talents are available. It's about being in control of their career and proving people wrong about their ability. It's best they don't give up."

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