Video technology could be here in August

After its successful use in Tuesday night’s friendly between France and Spain, video technology could make its English football debut in the first rounds of the EFL Cup in January.

It could be introduced to the Premier League in 2018/19 and the FA Cup a season earlier, but it’s the EFL who are showing appetite for introducing it to English football.

EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey said at the SportsPro Live conference: “Theoretically, it could happen from the first round of the EFL Cup, which would be a team no higher than the Championship down to League Two.

“We’ve got to see how far technology moves, what the appetite is for testing inside the English game, and you can be assured we’ll play a full part.”

He did rule out trials being extended to Football League games, saying: “For it to start in the EFL would be exceptionally difficult when you consider that a lot of our games are covered by two cameras at most.

 “It just wouldn’t be possible to achieve the accuracy that you need in that type of set up.”
The use of video technology helped to make two key decisions during Tuesday night’s friendly, and only Paul Ince really had a problem.