VAR aids Kiwi ref on World Cup duty

The Video Assistant Referee came to Kiwi Matt Conger’s aid as he made his debut in the middle at the Fifa World Cup.

Iceland were trailing Nigeria 2-0 when their forward Alfred Finnbogason appeared to be clipped by Tyronne Ebuehi in the box while chasing down a loose ball with 10 minutes to play.

Conger didn’t award a penalty initially, but the VAR team intervened and asked him to review the incident on a screen on the side of the pitch, and it didn’t take him long to change his mind, as Finnbogason had clearly been clipped from behind.

It would have been hard to tell that he hadn’t stumbled from where Conger was standing on the pitch at Volgograd Arena in Russia.

The foul from defender Ebuehi was foolish, as Finnbogason was heading away from goal, but it didn’t end up being costly, as Iceland’s star midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson sent the penalty high and wide of goal. Nigeria went on to win 2-0, improving their chances of advancing from group D.

Conger was joined in officiating the match by fellow Kiwi Simon Lount, who was one of his assistants. He became the third Kiwi to referee at a men’s World Cup.

Mike Hester was the first in the middle, in South Africa in 2010, when South Korea beat Greece.

Peter O’Leary served as a fourth official in that tournament, then got to take charge of a match four years later, when Nigeria beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-0.

He received death threats after a couple of contentious decisions in that match.

The first New Zealander to officiate at a men’s World Cup was Paul Smith, as an assistant on three occasions during the 2002 event in Japan and South Korea.