The FA Keen To Trial Video Technology

The Football Association (FA) is keen to trial video technology for England games, according to FA chief executive Martin Glenn.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s lawmaker, voted in favour of live experiments with video assistant referees, which are set to get underway by the 2017/18 season.

The board ruled out – for now – the idea of managers being able to challenge decisions and will instead concentrate on a two-year trial across the world of the new system.

A handful of applicants will be accepted to go ahead with the trials, which will involve pictures from a set number of multiple cameras being analysed by video referees. The match official will then be free either to take the advice of the video technician or analyse the incident himself via a tablet device on the halfway line.

According to IFAB, the video officials will only be called on in four defined “game-changing” scenarios: when a goal has been scored, penalty decisions, sendings off and possible cases of mistaken identity.

England friendlies could be among the first fixtures to use the technology, with the FA confirming it wanted to be at the forefront of live trials.

Glenn said, “We will definitely offer it”, when asked whether England could be part of a two-year experiment to see whether video assistance would improve football.

The chief executive also announced he would like FA Cup ties included in any trials, but raised the issue of cost and feasibility.

Glenn commented: “It would be a UEFA decision. The whole point of doing it is to avoid there being bad decisions made, so it would have to be at the top end because only at the top end will you have camera systems to make it work.

“The limiting factor is it can only work properly if there are a lot of cameras.”

The FA was also at the centre of testing goalline technology, staging a trial during a friendly with Belgium in 2012.