ON THE SPOT: Alan Campbell

NICE work if you're lucky enough to get it. The news that a handful of Scottish referees escaped the Arctic winds to take part in a Uefa-sponsored experiment in Cyprus was greeted frostily by those of us left behind.

For those of you unaware of the story, Uefa, acting at Fifa's behest, are currently conducting trials with no fewer than five officials active in matches. In addition to the usual three, a further two assistants stand behind the goals. Presumably if it was ever adopted seriously, there would be a sixth policing the dugouts.

You see where we're going here. At this rate there could soon be more referees than players. Or more referees than spectators at some lower league games.

The trials in Cyprus, which started eight days ago and concluded on Wednesday, were conducted on a European Under-19 Championship qualifying round mini-tournament featuring the hosts, Denmark, Georgia and the Czech Republic. Thus Dougie McDonald, Iain Brines, Calum Murray, Graham Chambers and Derek Rose found themselves in warmer climes as they took charge of three of the games.

This was the third such experiment, following earlier ones in Slovenia and Hungary. The role of the two extra assistants is to help control incidents in and around the penalty box by informing the match referee via microphone of anything he has missed.

It doesn't require a formidable intellect to appreciate that two extra pairs of eyes, even for men sponsored by Specsavers, can only help stamp out some of the dark arts perpetrated by defenders and strikers. The Scottish referees enjoyed the experience, as well they might.

Also present in Cyprus, and one of the organisers of the trials in his role as a member of Uefa's referees committee, was Hugh Dallas. A report on the use of five officials is now expected to be presented to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), but Dallas is fairly certain that it isn't likely to be implemented any time soon. Even if it is eventually adopted it is likely only to be for major championships. Not the Scottish Premier League or the vast majority of the world's domestic leagues.

The reason, of course, is that there wouldn't be enough referees to go round. It would also be more costly. But in a World Cup or European Championships, where a pool of 32 officials is assembled and often under-utilised, you can see the attraction. It would, at a stroke, drastically cut down the unseemly jostling and shirt tugging which disfigures corners and free-kicks.

Referees were under instructions to clamp down on such activity at Euro 2008, with English official Howard Webb taking decisive action when awarding a late penalty to Austria in their game against Poland. But realistically there's so much illegal stuff going on that it's often very difficult to police properly.

The man pushing the trials, with Sepp Blatter's approval, is Michel Platini. Here it starts to get a bit murky. Dallas is insistent that the extra two assistants, if adopted, are not intended as an alternative to the possible introduction of goal-line technology. The events of the last IFAB meeting appear to be at variance with that view.

It was there, in the lavish grounds of Gleneagles in March, that Platini and Blatter sunk the hopes of two companies which had been testing goal-line technology with the IFAB's active encouragement. Simultaneously, the Uefa president announced his wish to experiment with two extra officials.

The two companies were, naturally, incensed. Hawk-Eye Innovations, whose technology is used in tennis and cricket, had spent £500,000 on football trials at the board's urgings. The other, Cairos Technologies, a German company which had developed a system of undergound cables and a microchip inside an Adidas ball, took a seven-figure hit.

According to those present, the fate of the two companies was sealed before they arrived at Gleneagles, but they were still required to give their presentations. Both companies claimed their trials had been successful and that the reasons advanced by Platini and Blatter for rejecting the new technology were spurious.

Last week I asked Paul Hawkins, the inventor of Hawk-Eye, if his company has been compensated by Fifa or Uefa for their considerable investment in the project. It hasn't. And it won't.

Instead, Platini's favoured method is to place human cameras, in the form of assistants, behind the goals. It will work for spotting infringements but, according to Hawkins, even this close up it will be impossible for the naked eye to determine whether the ball has crossed the line in very marginal cases. Both companies say their systems would have been 100% accurate and the information relayed immediately to the referee. No waiting for video replays.

Football - or at least those who control it - seem strangely reluctant to embrace technology that has greatly enhanced decision-making in other sports. Instead, Uefa and Fifa are tinkering around the edges and experimenting with a human alternative which may, in time, improve major championships but seems destined never to be applied universally.

Having marched Hawk-Eye and Cairos to the top of the hill before abandoning them just as a genuine solution to goal-line controversies appeared to have been found, Platini and Blatter stand accused of shirking their responsibilities to improve the game.