May 1 – FIFA have named the 13 video assistant referees who could become heroes or villains with their decision making at next month’s World Cup in Russia.
Their selection is based on their experience in using the VAR system during trials in a number of leagues around the world including in Italy and Germany, FIFA said in a statement.
FIFA said it also considered “successful participation in several preparatory seminars and FIFA competitions, where they enhanced their VAR knowledge and skills by using the system.”
Nine officials were appointed from Europe: three from Italy and two each from Germany and Portugal, countries whose top-flight leagues have been experimenting with the technology. The other two European officials are from Netherlands and Poland, which have adopted it for cup competitions.
Three other VARs were chosen from South America – one each from Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina, with the last coming from Qatar.
The European referees named were Daniele Orsato, Paolo Valeri and Massimiliano Irrati of Italy, Artur Soares Dias and Tiago Martins of Portugal, Bastian Dankert and Felix Zwayer from Germany, Pawel Gil of Poland and Danny Makkelie of the Netherlands.
The others were Abdulrahman Al Jassim of Qatar, Wilton Sampaio of Brazil, Gery Vargas of Bolivia and Mauro Vigliano of Argentina.
British VARs are conspicuous by their absence, reflecting the fact that system has only been used occasionally in cup competitions during this season and then only selectively.
The VAR system was approved by football’s law-making body in March although there are still concerns that it is not working as smoothly as it should. FIFA president Gianni Infantino is a strong advocate of the technology saying it has been shown to cut the number of mistakes and lift the pressure on match officials.
But VARs are only supposed to be called into action if a “clear and obvious” mistake is spotted and critics say decisions are poorly explained to the crowd, have led to too many errors of judgement and have created more rather than less controversy.
The VAR team in Russia will be located in a centralised video operation room in Moscow with access to all relevant broadcast cameras and two dedicated offside cameras. There will be one VAR and three assistant VARs for each match at the tournament, which begins when hosts Russia play Saudi Arabia in Moscow on June 14.
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