May 10 – Following an almost incessant spate of controversial incidents using VARs in countries where it has been experimented with, FIFA’s Director of Refereeing has shrugged off concerns about the system being a success at the World Cup.
Massimo Busacca (pictured) insists there were far more erroneous game-changing decisions before the advent of VAR and that the World Cup will benefit from its use in Russia.
At the last Confederations Cup, the application of VAR was not perfect by Busacca’s own admission.
“At the World Cup it won’t be an experiment,” he told this week’s AIPS meeting in Brussels. “The real scandal is not there anymore. If you don’t have the VAR, you don’t have the possibility to correct a clear mistake.”
VAR can only be applied in four game-changing situations: goals, penalty decisions, direct red card incidents and cases of mistaken identity. But critics say that recent instances of mis-use and mis-interpretation show it can cause more problems than it solves.
“Technology will not solve all the problems,” conceded Busacca. “But it will be there to solve a clear situation.”
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