He confronted the ever hapless fourth official and drew an imaginary ‘square in the air’ to plead for the referee to assess the incident against with a video replay.

And so the curse of technology was launched into English football.

The game will only suffer.

In this instance, Martin Atkinson, the on-field ref in last week’s League Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Arsenal, had already decided to use the new VAR system.

Replays confirmed his initial decision was correct, and Mr Atkinson was a happy boy with his new toy. But this was an easy call for the ref, one that really didn’t need a second look from the video ref in his bunker somewhere near Heathrow Airport.

It was another glimpse, like Conte’s hand signal, of where football is heading --- to a future of matches full of delays and phoney controversies as so many incidents get the VAR treatment.

We have already seen from evidence this season in Germany and Italy, where VAR is being used in League matches, that some difficult decisions, the ones that always split opinion, can stop play for three, four and five  minutes at a time. 

It was inevitable --- and most people hate it. Yet it will only get worse.

Look at what happened in rugby and cricket. Video replays were introduced with the intention, like football now, of being used sparingly, and only on major moments.

Once the genie was out of the bottle, though, technology took over; it trampled all over their sports.

In rugby they call it TMO. Many matches are now so stop-start they last more than two hours, despite being the game being 40 minutes per half.

In cricket they call it DRS. The use has mushroomed from the line decisions of run-out calls to lbws, dubious catches, no-balls, snicko for edges, and boundary fielding issues. 

If you believe in football’s current insistence that VAR will be a rare event in a match, well, you are living in a fool’s paradise.

Ah, but it will deliver sporting justice say noisy supporters.

That’s another myth.

Yes, of course, there will be occasions when the use of VAR does correct a bad and crucial mistake by the officials. That will be welcome when it happens, and it would be stupid to deny that.

But will these moments be worth all the negative consequences? I’m certain they won’t.

Call it TMO, DRS or VAR, the truth is that they will not and cannot provide perfect sporting justice. Rugby and cricket still abound with arguments about decisions --- think of the furore around a dodgy stumping verdict on Moeen Ali in the recent Ashes campaign.

That series ended with England star Jonny Bairstow moaning that DRS was messing with players’ careers.

In German football this season there has already been a manager sent off for coming onto the pitch to protest about VAR decision he did not agree with.

The systems cause much more trouble than they solve.

This is not a plea for VAR to disappear. That battle is lost. It is a lament for the future, one that will see football fans, players, managers and TV pundits scream for more and more use.

Conte’s ‘square in the air’ is a prelude to demands for managers to be allowed reviews of incidents in the way that happens in cricket and tennis. It will be granted --- and you can surely imagine the aggravation that will ensue.

The unintended consequence of all this will be diminished respect for referees, and diminished authority.

Players will query decisions because they know technology may prove their point. Referees will become less certain of themselves, and they will ask for replays rather than be made to look like chumps.

This is clear enough from the pattern or rugby and cricket. Refs and umpires increasingly decline to trust the certainty of their own judgement as they always used to, and just defer to technology.

How many ridiculously obvious run-out decisions are now referred by umpires who have become fearful that technology may show an error?

What has happened in cricket will happen in football soon enough.

The ability to challenge an umpire’s decision has changed the dynamic of relationship between players and officials --- and not just at elite level.

Watch the game at grass roots on a village green and you routinely witness players drawing the TV ‘square in the air’ at umpires to show displeasure at a decision.

When sport actively encourages competitors to distrust the decisions of the neutral arbiter, the outcome can only be a matter of deep regret.