VAR lifts decisions ‘close to perfection’

in Moscow

Fifa has described refereeing decisions at this World Cup as “very, very close to perfection” following the introduction of video assistants and will consider widening the system so that viewers can also hear the live deliberation between officials.

Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of Fifa’s refereeing committee, and his team have assessed all 48 group matches and, of the 335 incidents that were reviewed by VAR, said that the 14 changes of decision had lifted the percentage of correct outcomes from 95 per cent to 99.3.

That would still mean that two reviewed decisions were wrong and, while Collina would not go into incidents, specifically the off-the-ball controversies in England’s 6-1 win against Panama, he did suggest that this match had prompted a further clamp-down. “We would have preferred to speak of 100 per cent but 99.3 is something that is very, very close to perfection and things have been fine-tuned based on what is occurring,” he said.

Massimo Busacca, Fifa’s director of referees, interjected to say that the clashes between Jesse Lingard and Panama’s Gabriel Gomez, including when the England winger was struck by an elbow in the face, were “not a black-and-white situation” and that there had so far not been one major error.

Fifa’s research revealed an average of four fewer fouls per match in Russia as well as fewer red cards (only three) but many more penalties, with 24 compared to 10 in the group phase in 2014 and 2010. Seven of the 14 extra penalties were as a result of VAR.

Collina showed a series of incidents that demonstrated the communications between officials that led to decisions. Fans can now hear conversations between officials in other sports and Collina said that he could see the benefit to this becoming a feature of VAR. “We can think of it,” he said. “It is something that could be interesting.”

Fifa also believes that the rhythm of matches has not been unduly affected. Additional time at the end of matches has, on average, increased by around a minute to just over six minutes. The average time needed for a VAR review by a referee was 80 seconds.