We’re inching closer and closer to a time when football will join other sports in using technology to make its own game better.

With the introduction of goal line technology in the Premier League in the 2013/14 season, the Premier League has successfully integrated a piece of non-intrusive technology into its laws to make the game fairer and, frankly, better.

And so the next frontier is video replays. Fouls, dives, instances of violent conduct are all picked over post-game, and the questions surrounding the action are usually conclusively answered. Managers are then asked about the incidents after the game, usually being cornered by a reporter who has already had access to the consensus opinion on the topic. The manager has to go with his instincts.

That’s all about to change, however. This week’s Club World Cup semi final saw Japan’s Kashima Antlers awarded a penalty in their 3-0 win over Colombia’s Atletico Nacional – but the penalty was awarded after the referee consulted with his Video Assistant Referee.

Hungarian official, Viktor Kassai, watched video footage of the incident at the side of the pitch before quickly getting to the correct decision and awarding the penalty.

For the first time at a FIFA competition, video replay technology has helped the referee with the awarding of a penalty. #VAR #ClubWC

— The IFAB (@TheIFAB) December 14, 2016

It probably won’t be long before we see a more widespread application of this use of fairly simple technology in sport, though. It was reported this week that both MLS and the Bundesliga are to trial the technology soon.

Football is a sport which seems inherently mistrustful of modernisation. But the lack of video replays in football is not a sign of a sport being wary of new technologies – the technology isn’t new. Rather this is a sport that is still struggling with the changing ways in which people consume their sport.

Watching on TV, you get to see the replays instantaneously and listen to literally thousands of other points of view by picking up your phone and clicking on Twitter. Video replays aren’t a new thing, but the way in which fans can now access them and come to an almost-objective decision in an instant is.

The application of video replays doesn’t point to a sport reaching for modernity, it points to a sport struggling to keep up.