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Fifa president Gianni Infantino has spoken up to indicate that the world football federation is still keen on using the video assistant referee (VAR) system, despite the focus on the experiment being undertaken at the Confederations Cup in Russia.
Infantino has always insisted that he expects the law-making International Football Association board to ratify the use of the VAR system at its annual meeting next year. That would mean providing a clear green light for its use at the World Cup in Russia next year.
On Sunday night in Moscow, Juan Antonio Pizzi and Hugo Broos, the respective coaches of Chile and Cameroon, expressed concern about the speed with which the technology was being employed.
Neither questioned the significance of video aides in bringing greater accuracy to decision making by match officials; their concern was about the effect of the system on players’ nerves at crucial moments of a match.
Fifa confirmed that, in the four initial group stage matches, the VAR had been used on five occasions – four related to offside and one to handball, the latter in Germany’s 3-2 victory over Australia in Sochi.
Indeed, one obvious issue, as evidenced in the Australia-Germany game, was that the initiative on VAR has been removed from the referee by the players. If they protest vehemently enough, the match official, for his own sake, will defer to the video assistant.
Without delving into the power shift, Infantino, who attended all four matches, said: “I am extremely happy with VAR so far. We have seen how video assistance has helped referees make the correct decisions.
“This is what VAR is all about. The VAR tests during this Confederations Cup are also helping us to improve the processes and fine-tune communication.
“What fans have been waiting for is finally happening. Video assistant refereeing is the future of modern football.”
Not everyone is in favour of video refereeing. One critic is Peter Schmeichel, the former Denmark and Manchester United goalkeeper.
He contrasted the time taken to reach a video decision with the almost instantaneous ruling provided by goal-line technology when issues arise concerning whether the ball has crossed into goal.
Schmeichel said: “I’d hate football to be going in a direction where the game has to be paused for someone to review the situation on video.
“Football is not a stop-start game in that respect. You will have referee mistakes and you will have bad tackles, but if you take all that out, you make the game, for me, a little bit too clinical.”
One of the most eagerly awaited major trials for the VAR system is being scheduled for the German Bundesliga in the 2017/18 league season.
This article first appeared on AIPS
