FIFA says replays of incidents under review by video assistant referees (VAR) will be displayed on big screens at this year’s World Cup.
The June 2018 tournament scheduled to be hosted by Russia will be the first World Cup in which the VAR technology is used.
Critics of the system have in the past expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that fans attending the games aren’t able to see the replays while fans watching on television can.
FIFA’s announcement comes just a day after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said VAR needed further testing before it would be used in European football’s Champions League competition.
“I have some fear for the World Cup, where we will have referees who have never officiated with the VAR,” Ceferin told Italian paper Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview.
The VAR has already been trialed in some domestic cup games in England as well as Germany and Italy.
It was also used at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2017, where it received both praise and criticism in equal measure.
“We need to live with the times,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.
“We wanted to give the referees tools so they can make better decisions, and in the World Cup some very important decisions are made. It’s not possible that in 2018 everyone in their living room knows a few seconds after the play whether a referee has made a mistake and the referee doesn’t,” he added.
The VAR is the second technology in as many World Cups to be employed by FIFA, timed at realizing more credible officiating.
In the 2014 World Cup, the goal line technology was used for the first time. It is used in games to decide goals in split seconds. It alerts referees if a ball has crossed the goal line or not, sending a vibration message to their wrist watches.
Spanish top flight league – La Liga and France’s Ligue 1 are expected to introduce the VAR from next season.
English football authorities have however hinted at not introducing the technology in the Premier League yet.
