The FA make huge change ahead of FA Cup weekend which will affect Newcastle United's game against Brighton

Newcastle United are in FA Cup action this weekend as Brighton and Hove Albion come to St James' Park to fight over a place in the quarter finals. The game takes place on Sunday at 1:45pm live on ITV.

The Magpies had received a couple of friendly draws heading into the fifth round, facing League Two Bromley and League One Birmingham, but the next step of facing a Championship team was skipped as Newcastle were drawn at home against Premier League opposition. Their name does begin with B, though, so there's that.

While Eddie Howe works on his team selection and tactics, the FA have released a statement that will directly affect Sunday's game.

It's good news for a change, albeit belated.

Semi-Automated Offside Technology will be in use at Premier League grounds this weekend

For the first time, Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) will be trialled in the English game. We had thought that this technology was coming in earlier this season, but at least there's movement on it, which should reduce a lot of faffing about drawing lines and getting things wrong when it comes to contentious offside decisions.

Every FA Cup game being played at a Premier League ground will have the technology in operation, leaving just the clash between Burnley and Preston North End to do things the old fashioned way ... with VAR.

In terms of how this will change the fan experience, when an offside decision is made, fans in the ground will see the visual representation on the big screen in the stadium, while obviously, fans at home will see the 3D mock-up as part of the coverage.

St James' Park has been fitted out with 30 new cameras

The FA have provided information on how the new set-up works (via The Shields Gazette).

"The system uses up to 30 newly-installed cameras mounted around Premier League stadiums – with several capturing footage at 100 frames per second, twice the frame rate of typical broadcast cameras.

"The cameras track the exact movement of the ball as well as up to 10,000 surface ‘mesh’ data points per player – meaning the technology will track to see if any attacking player involved in the build-up to any incident was offside. These are then ‘flagged’ automatically in SAOT software to the VAR and SAOT operator."