Robot makers say machines will beat human soccer players by 2050

• Robots playing football during a RoboCup game in Japan.
• A Japanese consortium of robotics experts has thrown down the gauntlet to future players of the beautiful game by claiming their engineered humans will play mankind off the park within 45 years.
• Mr Ishiguro and his team are placing their faith in the offspring of VisiON.
• Standing a mere 38cm tall and weighing just 2.4kg, VisiON would not be expected to trouble the defences of most professional football teams, but it has taken some vast strides in recent years.
• Equipped with thighs that Steven Gerrard would be proud of, VisiON operates completely independently of human input, making its own decisions based on information that it perceives, and is able to recognise the football, approach it and deliver a hefty kick.
• The decision to push ahead with a soccer-playing version was in part the result of robot world cup tournaments, the most recent of which was held in Lisbon, with the team from Tokyoâ¬(TM)s Keio University winning the middle-size robot league and Osaka-based Systec Akazawa winning the humanoid league.
• A remarkable 346 teams from 37 countries took part in the championships, and the next tournament, RoboCup 2005, is scheduled for July in Osaka.
• "Down through human history, the weapon that has caused the most deaths has been the knife, so all technology has a risk, but what we do with this technology is up to human beings," Mr Ishiguro said.
• "All these advanced technologies have an element of risk and we can warn of the dangerous aspects of robots in human society," Mr Ishiguro shrugs, "but cars, for example, successfully collaborate with humans and have been safely integrated into society.
• Reminiscent of Eric Cantona in his pomp, it leans slightly to one side, hands on hips and with the ball - and the world - at its feet.