It is always in use at soccer games. The vanishing spray keeps the defenders' wall 10 yards away and disappears after just 60 seconds. It was first introduced to the world at the last World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and proved a huge hit. Not surprisingly, the spray became a permanent fixture in soccer. It has been adopted by the biggest leagues in the world, including the Premier League, and is being used by referees during this year's tournament in Russia.
However, the vanishing spray is actually Brazilian Heine Allemagne's foam.
Heine Allemagne during the 2014 tournament
Acknowledged as the spray's creator, 47-year-old Heine Allemagne came up with the idea for the disappearing foam in 2000. Cleverly, he patented the idea in Brazil and it gradually started being used worldwide.
It must be noted that FIFA held talks with him but the parties could not come to an agreement. Surprisingly, FIFA then encouraged other companies to produce it. A Brazilian court has now ruled in his favour but FIFA ignored the judgment. The world soccer body may have to pay Mr Allemagne £10,000 for every game in which it is used.
Mr Allemagne spent 15 years and more than £500,000 of his own money developing and testing the spray. He says FIFA's 'betrayal' left him penniless, broken and jobless. He claims that as he continued to fight them in the courts he fell into a spiral of debt.
He now earns a meagre living doing manual work such as digging trenches with a hoe and planting and picking coffee by hand.
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