The system's use in any competition has to be approved by Fifa, but this is seen as a formality.

BBC: Ref trial extends to Champions League & 2012 qualifiers

And while counterpart Harry Redknapp will not regard the second leg at Turf Moor as a formality, it will take a miraculous effort from Burnley to reach Wembley.

BBC: Tottenham 4-1 Burnley

But while some might see the interview as a mere formality, for others this face-to-face encounter proves to be a major stumbling block in what is already a competitive application process.

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Once regarded as a simple formality, the St.

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So the election is seen as something of a formality one of the hoops through which East Timor has to jump before achieving the formal independence its people want, now expected next year.

ECONOMIST: East Timor's election hopes | The

England 2018 bid chief executive Andy Anson downplayed the issue over accommodation, describing it as a "technical formality", and promised to have organised the required 60, 000 hotel rooms before the end of September deadline.

BBC: Fifa inspectors praise England 2018 World Cup bid

Correspondents say it will be a formality as the Democratic governor has campaigned for five years to have the death penalty repealed.

BBC: US state of Maryland votes to abolish death penalty

The decider was a formality as Federer, who had never dropped a set previously to Verdasco, broke him twice and threatened a whitewash until the world number seven held in the sixth game.

CNN: Federer and Murray in three set wins

Many industry advocates have been campaigning for this for some time, and it is likely a formality which will eventuate as eSports matures.

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United started the final, played in stifling heat, as if retaining their crown would be little more than a formality, creating a host of early chances against the nervous-looking Catalans, with Cristiano Ronaldo a constant threat.

BBC: Barcelona 2-0 Man Utd

In over a dozen books she has delivered something people badly want: a way to acknowledge that faith can be taken seriously as a response to deep human yearnings without needing to subscribe to the formality of organised belief.

ECONOMIST: A history of Christianity

Amendments made to the Scotland Bill by peers had to be agreed by MPs before it could reach the statute book, but as there were no government defeats in the Upper House, the agreement of MPs was likely to be a formality.

BBC: Scotland Bill