The International Football Association Board (IFAB) has approved trials for video assistant referees in the sport.
A decision to test the advantages and disadvantage of video assistants in private before implementing live experiments for the 2017-18 season was taken at IFAB's annual general meeting in Cardiff on Saturday.
The IFAB says 12 leagues and one confederation are interested in staging live trials.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said of the decision: "We have taken really a historic decision for football. FIFA and IFAB are now leading the debate and not stopping the debate.
"We have shown we are listening to the fans, the players."
The IFAB has also amended the wording of the rule concerning the "triple punishment" for a player who concedes a penalty and is sent off and suspended having been deemed to have denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Furthermore, a player who is injured by a challenge that results in a yellow or red card can be treated on the field rather than having to leave the pitch and hand the team who committed the offence an advantage.
In other changes, players will be able to kick the ball in any direction from the kick-off instead of just being able to kick it forwards, while experimentation with a fourth substitution in extra time has also been allowed.
The changes will be enforced from June 1.
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Comments
Will be interesting how Video refs will be implemented.
- take a corner else it becomes a Goal-Kick
- take a throw-in else it goes to the opposition
- complete a substitution else the player coming on isnt allowed on the pitch until the next time the ball goes out of play (i.e. you briefly go down to 10-men)
Really fed up and tired with time wasting (even when Charlton do it)... I go to a match to watch a game of Football, not to watch a player strolling off the pitch (Who was running 2secs ago) whilst giving all his team mates a cuddle
Video refs dont interest me that much... Goal Line Technology is great but it needs to be filtered down the Leagues a bit, as at the moment its only applicable in the Premier League rather than in the Championship / League One.
ie. 7 on the bench, 3 outfield subs allowed, 1 goalkeeping sub allowed.
also, there should be action against any player holding up an imaginary yellow/red card.
more respect needed in the game.
I think the Mexican FA forced the change to "any three subs" because it's more common to switch outfield players and goalkeepers during a game there.
Personally, I think there are too many subs allowed already!
Charlton will play it straight back to the keeper :-(
As long as that change isn't an excuse to line their own pockets and that the appointing of the companies to run the video technology is transparent.
The 4th sub in extra time is also another way for the bigger clubs with larger squads to gain advantage over the smaller ones.
That said there definitely needs to be an independent timekeeper
Have stricter rules on timewasting and simulation
I'd also change penalty shootouts to spice things up, ball starts on a spot 30 yards out, attacker has 15 seconds to score a goal, one on one vs goalkeeper
* Will cub scout football teams please accept my apologies for this outrageous slur on their footballing abilities.