Goal-line technology will not be used in next summer's World Cup after plans to experiment with the system next week were dropped.
Adidas and the two other companies which had developed the "smartball" system had hoped to impress Fifa at next week's World Club Championships in Japan, but have pulled the plug on the tests.
They have accepted that the system, in which a microchip in the ball sends a signal to the referee when it goes over the line, needs further development and will not be ready for Germany next summer. The technology was first tested at the Fifa Under-17 World Championships in Peru in September.
Meanwhile, Germany cannot afford to be complacent about preparations after a renewed outbreak of crowd trouble at the weekend, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said yesterday.
Blatter said he would speak to organising committee chairman Franz Beckenbauer about preventing repeats of the crowd trouble during Saturday's match between Hamburg and Cologne when a Hamburg player was hit by an object thrown from the crowd.