Video assistant referee technology (VAR) will make its debut at
the World Cup in Russia this summer despite lingering opposition
from within and outside football, FIFA president Gianni Infantino
said Friday.
“We are going to have in 2018, for the first time, a World Cup
with VAR,” said Infantino after a meeting of the FIFA Council
which, as expected, rubber-stamped the go-ahead given by the
rule-making International Football Association Board (IFAB) in
Zurich two weeks ago.
“This has been approved and we are really very happy with this
decision.”
The World Cup, which takes place from June 14-July 15, will see
VAR used to judge whether or not a goal has been scored, analyse
whether a penalty should be awarded, decide on red cards and
rectify if a player has been mistakenly sanctioned.
“What we want is to help and to give the referee the possibility
to have extra help when he has to make important decisions, and in
a World Cup we make very important decisions,” added Infantino.
“It cannot be possible that in 2018 everybody, in the stadium or
at home, knows in a few seconds if the referee has made a mistake
but not the referee himself — not because he doesn’t want to know
about it but because we forbid him to know.
“The VAR is helping the referee and we are going to have a more
transparent and fairer game, and that’s what we want.”
VAR has been trialled since 2016 by 20 federations, including
the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, with around 1,000
matches involved.
But it has not been universally welcomed with even UEFA, the
European governing body, still to be convinced.
“Nobody knows exactly how VAR will work. There is already a lot
of confusion,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who insists
that VAR will not be used in next season’s Champions League.
“I am not at all against it but we must better explain when it
will be used. We will see at the World Cup.”
One of the problems that dogs VAR, say its critics, is not the
accuracy of its decisions but the time it takes to arrive at
them.
It’s a drawback which has left many fans and purists frustrated
that the flow of a game is interrupted.
“The intervention of VAR takes one minute on average in each
game. If we lose a minute to correct mistakes, I think we have done
something good,” said Infantino earlier this week on a visit to
Lima.
However, Colombia coach Luis Fernando Suarez added in an
interview with AFP: “It seems hurried to me. I think we should do
other trials in other tournaments, analyse them well, and then put
it in place.”
Suarez, who led Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and
Honduras in 2014 in Brazil, remains a fan in general of the use of
technology in football, which he has witnessed close up.
That came in the 2014 tournament when his Honduras team played
France in Porto Alegre when the first goal decided through GLT
(goal-line technology) was awarded to France.
“It’s good and necessary that there are changes but it’s
essential that we don’t lose the essence of football,” added
Suarez.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the FIFA Council decided that Peru will
host the 2019 Under-17 World Cup with Poland staging the Under-20
tournament.
AFP
Video assistant referee technology (VAR) will make its debut at
the World Cup in Russia this summer despite lingering opposition
from within and outside football, FIFA president Gianni Infantino
said Friday.
“We are going to have in 2018, for the first time, a World Cup
with VAR,” said Infantino after a meeting of the FIFA Council
which, as expected, rubber-stamped the go-ahead given by the
rule-making International Football Association Board (IFAB) in
Zurich two weeks ago.
“This has been approved and we are really very happy with this
decision.”
The World Cup, which takes place from June 14-July 15, will see
VAR used to judge whether or not a goal has been scored, analyse
whether a penalty should be awarded, decide on red cards and
rectify if a player has been mistakenly sanctioned.
“What we want is to help and to give the referee the possibility
to have extra help when he has to make important decisions, and in
a World Cup we make very important decisions,” added Infantino.
“It cannot be possible that in 2018 everybody, in the stadium or
at home, knows in a few seconds if the referee has made a mistake
but not the referee himself — not because he doesn’t want to know
about it but because we forbid him to know.
“The VAR is helping the referee and we are going to have a more
transparent and fairer game, and that’s what we want.”
VAR has been trialled since 2016 by 20 federations, including
the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, with around 1,000
matches involved.
But it has not been universally welcomed with even UEFA, the
European governing body, still to be convinced.
“Nobody knows exactly how VAR will work. There is already a lot
of confusion,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who insists
that VAR will not be used in next season’s Champions League.
“I am not at all against it but we must better explain when it
will be used. We will see at the World Cup.”
One of the problems that dogs VAR, say its critics, is not the
accuracy of its decisions but the time it takes to arrive at
them.
It’s a drawback which has left many fans and purists frustrated
that the flow of a game is interrupted.
“The intervention of VAR takes one minute on average in each
game. If we lose a minute to correct mistakes, I think we have done
something good,” said Infantino earlier this week on a visit to
Lima.
However, Colombia coach Luis Fernando Suarez added in an
interview with AFP: “It seems hurried to me. I think we should do
other trials in other tournaments, analyse them well, and then put
it in place.”
Suarez, who led Ecuador at the 2006 World Cup in Germany and
Honduras in 2014 in Brazil, remains a fan in general of the use of
technology in football, which he has witnessed close up.
That came in the 2014 tournament when his Honduras team played
France in Porto Alegre when the first goal decided through GLT
(goal-line technology) was awarded to France.
“It’s good and necessary that there are changes but it’s
essential that we don’t lose the essence of football,” added
Suarez.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the FIFA Council decided that Peru will
host the 2019 Under-17 World Cup with Poland staging the Under-20
tournament.
AFP
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