It will not necessarily be a three-way fight, however, as world football's governing body has said a fourth system, created by a German company, is currently in the process of attempting to gain a licence, but will not reveal the name until a decision is made.

"The Cairos GLT System met all of the demands placed on it," said the company in a statement.

The Sony-owned British-developed Hawk-Eye and German/Danish GoalRef were both used at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, but were not required for any contentious decisions.

The Cairos system is similar to the GoalRef principle, relying on a magnetic field which tracks the ball and sends a signal to the referee's watch when the ball fully crosses the line.

A demonstration of the GoalRef system, which was used along with Hawk-Eye, at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup

Meanwhile, Hawk-Eye is vastly different, using a series of high frame-rate cameras to determine whether the ball has fully crossed the line, and would most likely be implemented as a referral system if successful.

FIFA last week announced that goal-line technology would make its major international tournament debut at this year's Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup, and launched a tender setting out the technical requirements for systems hoping to be used at the competitions.

The winning technology is due to be announced in April.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]

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