Uefa referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina leapt to the defence of the additional assistant referee experiment after Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared Ukraine’s European Championship defeat to England made goalline technology “a necessity”.

The Football Association has stressed its desire to see goal-line technology introduced as soon as possible following Chelsea’s ’ghost goal’ against Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final.

FIFA will next week launch tests into 10 companies’ goal-line technology systems which if successful should lead to the principle being adopted at a meeting of the game’s law-makers in March.

FIFA are expected today to face questions over two officiating embarrassments which marred yesterday’s last-16 matches.

The Football Association have ruled out any possibility of England meeting Scotland before 2011.