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Gianni Infantino, the new Fifa president, flew by budget airline for his first overseas trip since winning the election, in stark contrast to the private jet favoured by Sepp Blatter, his predecessor.
Infantino flew by easyJet into Bristol before travelling to Cardiff for the International FA Board (Ifab) meeting and said that it was important that the new Fifa executive committee sends out signals that the old luxurious lifestyle is not always appropriate.
It was also a personal journey for Infantino, who received blood from two donors, one from Bristol and another from Serbia, when he was a new-born baby suffering from a rare condition.
“I was thinking on the flight it was appropriate that my first overseas trip as Fifa president should be to Bristol, as the blood which saved my life came from there 46 years ago,” said Infantino, who added that he would like to discover who the donor was.
“I took the easyJet flight as it was simply the best option to get to Cardiff, but we do need to give some signals — it is more a question of image than of budget — and I will discuss this with the executive committee and new Fifa Council.”
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Football’s law-making body gave the go-ahead for live video trials at their meeting in Cardiff today. Ifab announced it would grant the experiments before the 2017-18 season, although there is no confirmed date, with the English and Scottish FAs keen to take part. although the German and Dutch top flights want to be at the forefront of the trials.
Infantino said: “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 and to football.
“We are applying common sense. We have to be cautious, but we are also open to look into matters and take concrete measures and steps forward. The real live tests will be at the latest 2017-18, but we will start immediately, looking offline and online to fine tune everything and then it will be tested, in friendly matches as well.”
Thirteen countries are interested in trialling the scheme but English FA chief executive Martin Glenn knows there are still issues to overcome.
He said: “The limiting system is how many cameras at a game. Take the FA Cup, there are not going to be 30 cameras at a non-league ground in the early rounds, that’s the limiting factor. What’s the minimum number of cameras? If we insist on, for the sake of argument, it being 36, people are going to say who is going to pay for it? It’s always going to be at the top end.”
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There are doubts over whether trials will be approved for England or Scotland — the Premier League decided not to offer its competition for tests, and although the FA Cup and Scottish Cup have been put forward, Ifab may be more inclined to choose the Netherlands, where a system has been under development for three years.