Saturday 28 February 2015 20:49, UK
Football's lawmakers have delayed live trials of video technology at matches for at least 12 months.
But a move to change the 'triple punishment' has been agreed in principle, so that a player who is sent off for a straight red card for denying a goal-scoring chance when conceding a penalty is no longer suspended for the following match.
The Dutch FA had asked to use a video system in the Dutch Cup next season but the International FA Board (IFAB), meeting in Belfast on Saturday, wants more information before giving the trial the go-ahead.
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke had been keen to push forward live trials but other delegates were more cautious, which means it will be at least another year before the green light can be given.
Dyke said: "I'm very much in favour of using video technology. I wanted more trials. It's clearly going slower. I'm disappointed. We will look back in 20 years time and say 'wasn't it quaint we didn't use it.'
"I said to meeting - let's not wait for another Frank Lampard disallowed goal to happen before doing something. Let's get on front foot. I said 'get on with it' but.."
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said more work was needed as the implications of the rule change were so vast.
He said: "I think it needs a lot of discussion - if the referee just relies on information that he is getting [from the video official] is there a risk he becomes not as strong and always asks for confirmation?
"It's the biggest decision which will come out of IFAB ever. It's not a question of years - it's making the biggest decision ever in the way football is played."
IFAB did agree that this punishment is too harsh and that we must find a solution to the matter. IFAB has tasked FIFA to look into the feasibility of implementing this on a global level.
The potential change to the 'triple punishment' rule will be discussed and potentially signed off at the FIFA executive meeting in March.
Irish FA chief executive Patrick Nelson said: "IFAB did agree that this punishment is too harsh and that we must find a solution to the matter. IFAB has tasked FIFA to look into the feasibility of implementing this on a global level."
Proposals to allow a fourth substitute in extra-time, which had been put forward by FIFA, were rejected.
"IFAB remains of the view that three substitutions is adequate," said Nelson, but the issue has been referred back to its technical panels for further analysis.
One will that will become law in July - following succesful pilots in England and Scotland - is 'return substitutions' at grassroots level. This will allow players who have come off to return to the action later in the game.
Dyke said: "We were very keen. We have trailed it. It works well and gets more people playing."
IFAB, formed in 1886, pre-dates FIFA's founding by 18 years, and is the game's ultimate law-making body with proposed changes needing a 75 percent majority to make it into the statute book.
The Board consists of four representatives - one each from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - and four representatives from FIFA, each of whom has equal voting rights.
