The International Football Association Board have today confirmed that Video Assistant Referees will be used at this summer’s World Cup.
The assistant referee review system has been controversial throughout Europe this season, with many calling for it to be useless and a huge waste of time in England, Italy and Germany.
But FIFA have approved the technology and will see it being used at every game during the World Cup.
A statement released on the IFAB website read: “The International Football Association Board (The IFAB) unanimously approved the use of video assistant referees (VARs) at its 132nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) that took place at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich today.
“This landmark meeting, chaired by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, represents a new era for football with video assistance for referees helping to increase integrity and fairness in the game. Prior to taking its decision, the members of The IFAB (the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as FIFA, representing all other national football associations) were presented with the results of the independent analysis of the use of VAR sconducted by Belgian university KU Leuven since the beginning of the VAR experiment in March 2016.
The philosophy of VARs is ‘minimum interference – maximum benefit’ which aims to reduce unfairness caused by ‘clear and obvious errors’ or ‘serious missed incidents’ in relation to: goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards and cases of mistaken identity.”
IFAB also revealed that a fourth substitution will be allowed for matches that go to extra time for tactical flexibility.
