Here's proof that video replay in soccer does indeed work

At long last, it’s looking like video replay might play a meaningful role in soccer.

Goal-line technology has been around for some time now, and it has made a real impact on the accuracy of judging what is actually a goal and what isn’t. But the sport’s establishment had long been loathe to assist referees with replays in order to prevent other errors.

On Wednesday, however, the Dutch Cup game between Ajax and Willem II saw the global debut of video replay in a professional game. And it had an immediate impact.

Anouar Kali went in hard on Lasse Schone in the second half of Ajax’s 5-0 first-round win. Referee Danny Makkelie initially gave him a yellow card. But after he got word from his video assistant in a truck outside the Amsterdam Arena, he changed his call to a red.

And rightly so, if you look at the below footage.

But getting this logical innovation implemented, even on its current trial basis, took years of lobbying by Dutch soccer federation president Michael van Praag. He ran into considerable resistance from then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter and then-UEFA president Michel Platini, neither of whom supported video replay. Both of those men are gone now, though, ostracized for their corruption. And while van Praag failed in his respective bids to replace both, he finally got clearance to experiment with replay.

The extra referee in the van, watching a half dozen screens and footage he can rewind, can assist the referee on the field if he asks for a review, briefly pausing the game, or he can alert him to oversights before the game moves on to the next play.

“In the end, I’d misjudged the situation,” Makkelie told reporters after the game. “I don’t like that, but I’m glad about [the replay]. I was told that it was a red. A hundred percent red. That proves the use of the video-referee. Otherwise somebody would have stayed on the field who deserved red.”

Video replay had previously been tested in a France-Italy friendly. The International Football Association Board, which makes the rules of the sport, will meet in 2018 to decide if video replay will become a regular part of professional soccer.

The Dutch federation plans to keep using the technology throughout this year’s domestic cup tournament.

“I thought it was a yellow,” Kali said after the game. “But I haven’t seen the footage yet.”

The video-referee had, though. And he was correct.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.