Infantino: VAR good for football and for referees
FOOTBALL’S lawmakers yesterday dismissed the growing backlash over video assistant referees by approving the most ground-breaking rule change the game has ever seen.
As anticipated the International FA Board voted for VARs to be used at the World Cup this summer.
With FIFA president Gianni Infantino driving the initiative, IFAB – comprising FIFA and the four British associations – had no hesitation in approving the most far-reaching new law since goalline technology six years ago...
VAR will be used in the World Cup with replays shown on giant screens.
The English FA still admits the system needs to be improved.
FIFA plan to cherry-pick referees and give them extra training with the technology.
Despite the many recent complaints, the Premier League may still implement the system next season.
All this comes despite calls for a delay until managers, players and fans have a better understanding of how the system works.
Last week’s comical scenes at Wembley during Tottenham’s 61 FA Cup replay win over Rochdale, which saw several controversial referrals and led to multiple stoppages, was the latest in a string of contentious incidents across Europe.
UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin has refused to allow VARs in next season’s Champions League while a number of Premier League bosses are uncomfortable with the flow of the game being interrupted.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn admitted the system was still fraught with problems, but dismissed fears of a collision course with Premier League bosses who vote next month to decide whether to adopt the system next season or remain the only major European league to reject VAR.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was the first to publically express his disapproval by saying he ‘hated all these games that stop and start’.
Glenn said: ‘I’m not ignoring criticism but we’ve only had 10 games so far, most of which have passed without any comment at all. It’s clearly a learning curve and we all agree there is more work to be done. We need more experience to get the quality that, say, Italy and Germany have seen.
‘The Premier League have quite wisely decided to go softly. If they do choose not to implement, it will not be a fundamental rejection but a decision to simply give it more time. I don’t have a problem with that.’
Glenn nevertheless identified three specific areas that needed radical improvement.
‘We have to speed up reviews, communication to the crowd has to be better and we need to be much more comfortable with what are clear and obvious errors. What we have seen in Italy and Germany is that the VARs are so desperate to get everything right and support their colleagues on the pitch, they are probably calling out too many things.
‘It’s clearly a learning curve. We all agree there is more work to be done. But it’s very compelling. You have to believe that if it works in Spain, Italy and Germany, it will work in England.’
After a two-year experimentation period across more than 20 leagues and analysis of more than 1,000 live games, FIFA chief Infantino said he had no doubt that VARs would be ‘good for football, good for referees and good for the World Cup.
‘It will make the World Cup fairer. If there is a big mistake it will be corrected. There are grey areas but the most important competition in the world cannot afford to be decided by a potential mistake,’ he said.
He rejected the argument by his predecessor Sepp Blatter and others that FIFA was being too hasty, stressing the accuracy of refereeing decisions had increased to 99 per cent.
‘We have to be as close to perfection as possible and VAR gets us closer,’ he said. ‘For years FIFA and IFAB were criticised for being too slow. But if we can help referees correct mistakes that naturally occur on the pitch, we will have taken a great step. It can only improve fairness.But as of today, video assistant refereeing is part of football.’