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Law-makers consider rule changes

London - Football's rule-making body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), will consider allowing a fourth substitution in extra time as well as ending the controversial so-called "triple punishment" this weekend.

IFAB, which consists of the four British associations and four from world governing body FIFA, will also hear reports on the use of sin-bins in experimental youth matches and discuss changes to the laws governing handball, but they are not up for inclusion on the statute books.

The English FA said this week they would welcome debate of trials carried out in the Netherlands by the Dutch FA (KNVB) where a video assistant, watching a TV monitor, liaises with the referee via a headset to help the man in the middle ensure he has made the right decision on crucial plays.

The KNVB is seeking approval to use the system in their FA Cup competition and English FA chairman Greg Dyke said he liked the idea after seeing a presentation this week.

"I think the referees themselves are now up for trying this technology out somewhere. Slowly and gradually it needs to be done, as you could disrupt the game completely if you are not careful," he said.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was famously resistant to any use of video technology in football for years but changed his mind after the 2010 World Cup finals when England saw a valid goal against Germany not given because the officials failed to spot the ball crossed the line.

Blatter and his secretary general Jerome Valcke also seem resistant to change the so-called "triple punishment" rule which comes into play when a player is sanctioned for denying a clear scoring chance, concedes a penalty, is sent off, and then has to serve an automatic suspension.

The item has been on and off the IFAB agenda for several years but FIFA believes if it is removed it opens the way to increased cynical fouling.

The board are expected to approve a change to Law 3 regarding an additional substitution in extra time and to also allow for rolling subs in grassroots and recreational football, after successful experiments were carried out by the English and Scottish FAs.

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.

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