With none other than FIFA president Sepp Blatter confirming that goal-line technology could be introduced as early as next season, we take a look back at the matches - and the moments in history - that would have been very different had hi-tech caught up with football a little bit earlier.

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1. Geoff Hurst's goal off the underside of the bar, England v West Germany (1966)

Tofik Bakhramov is one of the most famous match officials in football history after he became the infamous "Russian linesman" who awarded a third goal for England against West Germany deep into extra time of the

Shane Williams: He'll be missed, but at least he signed off in styleShane Williams brought down the curtain on a stunning international rugby career by scoring a try for Wales against Australia at the Millennium Stadium with what was the last move of the match.

The diminutive winger sidestepped through a gap in the Wallabies' defence with the clock already in the red, giving him a fairytale finish to his nine years at the top of the game that elicited as big a cheer as has ever been heard at the Cardiff stadium.

The ending, for Williams, was slightly bittersweet since Wales were on the wrong end of a 24-18 defeat - but despite that, the winger's final action

Fergie: His boys took one hell of a beatingManchester United suffered Carling Cup embarrassment on Wednesday night when Crystal Palace pulled off a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford.

The Eagles went in front through a Darren Ambrose screamer, but appeared to have missed their chance when Federico Macheda levelled from the penalty spot. Yet Glenn Murray converted an extra-time header to send the South London club into raptures.

Such results have been rare in Sir Alex Ferguson's 25-year reign, especially at Old Trafford.

Here, we unearth United's 10 worst home defeats under Ferguson.

Manchester United 1-2 Nottm Forest - First Division - April

On Wednesday it was reported that Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole is to star alongside Danny Dyer in a new drama named 'Played'.

The flick will see Cole make his acting debut, alongside Joe Cole and Sam Allardyce, in a film exploring the life of a dodgy football agent, played by Dyer.

In anticipation of this likely Oscar-botherer, we thought it would be appropriate to look at 10 other sportsmen who have made the leap to the silver screen.

Johnny Weissmuller

The man synonymous with the Tarzan franchise had a wildly successful career as a swimmer before moving to Hollywood, winning

Sepp
Blatter's shocking view that on-pitch racism does not exist, and that racial abuse between players during
games can, and should, be shrugged off with a post-match handshake has caused
outrage in the world of football, and dismay among anti-racism campaigners.

Yet could
the FIFA president bring himself to say sorry? Well, while he did say "I am sorry for all those people affected by my declarations," he
categorically refused to retract his view, or even admit that he was wrong to
deny the existence of on-pitch racism.

He did not apologise for his declarations - only the fact that some

England
cricket chief Hugh Morris has launched a hilarious attack on sports stars who
get themselves into hot water using Twitter, likening them to monkeys with
machine guns.

As the
social networking site has gone from being popular to ubiquitous, dozens of
sporting figures around the world have ended up in trouble over their unguarded
comments. The best-case scenario is that they end up looking stupid; the worst
is that they end up being banned from their sport.

Morris defended
some players' abilities to use Twitter appropriately, however.

"It's
a great medium for pushing out good messages

England's
football players will take to the pitch against Spain at Wembley on Saturday
with poppies embroidered on their black armbands in remembrance of the
servicemen who have given their lives for their country.

FIFA allowed
the addition of poppies as a compromise after a week of astonishing
protests involving everyone from Prince William to Jack Wilshere to David
Cameron. These even included - how best to put this? - a bunch of far-right Englishmen staging a demonstration
on the rooftop of FIFA's headquarters in Zurich.

Such protests
in sport are far from unknown. Athletes and fans have

Newcastle
owner Mike Ashley has been widely lambasted for changing the name of the club's
ground from St James' Park to the Sports Direct Arena.

And rightly
so, you might think: we're talking about a multi-millionaire renaming a
119-year-old stadium after his chain of shops just six weeks before Christmas.

But Ashley
is far from the first person to set go ahead with such a brutally shameless sporting
cash-in; and perhaps even more surprising, his actions are actually fairly tame
compared to some of the things that have happened in sport over the years.

So here, in
no particular order, is our