International football board pushes back video technology trials
The use of video replays to assist match officials will not be trialled for at least another year, football's rule-making body the International FA Board (IFAB) announced on Saturday. The Royal Dutch Football Association had proposed testing the technology in next season's Dutch Cup, but the IFAB revealed at its annual general meeting in Belfast that it wants more information before sanctioning an experiment. "It's the biggest decision which will come out of IFAB ever," said FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke. "It's not a question of years; it's making the biggest decision ever in the way football is played. "I think it needs a lot of discussion. If the referee just relies on information that he is getting (from a video official), is there a risk he becomes not as strong and always asks for confirmation?" Football Association of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford added: "We shouldn't as IFAB just allow experiments to be conducted willy-nilly." IFAB also said that it had agreed in principle to outlaw the 'triple punishment', so that a player who concedes a penalty and is sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity is not automatically suspended for the next match. "IFAB did agree that this punishment is too harsh and that we must find a solution to the matter," Irish Football Association chief executive Patrick Nelson told a press conference. "IFAB has tasked FIFA to look into the feasibility of implementing this on a global level." European governing body UEFA expressed "extreme disappointment" after its proposal that fouls that denied goal-scoring opportunities be punished with a yellow card rather than a red card was rejected. "UEFA would like to express its extreme disappointment with the decision taken by IFAB to reject our provision regarding 'triple punishment'," said UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino in a statement. "The problem with the current law is the mandatory sanction of a red card, which in many cases is too harsh and has a killing effect on the games. "Therefore, we also fundamentally disagree with the IFAB's view regarding the one-game suspension, since we feel it totally misses the point." World governing body FIFA had submitted proposals to allow a fourth substitution in matches that go to extra time, but the IFAB referred the matter to its technical panels for further analysis. "IFAB remains of the view that three substitutions is adequate," said Nelson. The IFAB also approved the use of rolling substitutions -- allowing players who have been substituted to return to the pitch -- in recreational football. The IFAB consists of four representatives from the British football associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and four representatives from FIFA, each of whom has equal voting rights. It convenes once a year to discuss and decide on proposed changes to the Laws of the Game.
