Fifa begins to switch on to video replays

Sepp Blatter has suggested managers should be allowed two appeals for incidents to be reviewed via video replays

Jim Boyce, Fifa’s referees chairman and Britain’s vice-president of the world governing body, has said he has changed his mind on video replays and would back their use for penalty-area incidents.

The issue of video replays is on the agenda for the annual meeting of the International FA Board (IFAB) in Belfast on Saturday and was given fresh impetus by another weekend of controversial refereeing incidents in the Premier League.

Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has suggested managers should be allowed two appeals for incidents to be reviewed via video replays, while trials have been taking place in the Netherlands, where the referee is updated via a headset from an official watching the match on TV.

Boyce, head of Fifa’s referees committee, does not support Blatter’s idea but has come around to limited use of replays and will make his views known at the meeting.

“I was always in favour of goal-line technology but not other forms of technology but I have started to change my mind,” he said yesterday. “If there are major decisions on incidents in the 18-yard box and technology is available, then I think the time has come that it should be used.”