Izuchukwu Okosi
The International Football Association Board is set to try in-stadium VAR announcements in other competitions, after an initial trial at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
VAR decisions were announced in-stadium at the Women’s World Cup with IFAB, saddled with decisions on the rules governing football, set to trial the process in other competitions.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIFAB are also set to discuss other changes, such as making audio between the referee and VAR available in the stadium, but that change is said to be less popular.
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According to reports in the English media, those on the marketing and commercial side love the idea of making the audio available to fans, whilst those involved in officiating matches would probably feel extra pressure if such audio could be heard by all the supporters on the ground.
Currently, the rules of the game specifically prohibit the conversations between the referee and the VAR from being broadcast live to fans.
IFAB is also reportedly looking at allowing a decision to be revisited where a clear mistake was made and no significant action has been taken since the restart of play.
That would allow the VAR team to pull the game back for incidents like Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal against Tottenham Hotspur, where the VAR quickly realised they’d made a mistake but knew it was too late to change the decision after play restarted.
Lastly, IFAB has been asked to discuss widening the scope of VAR to decisions such as corner or free-kicks. As it stands, neither such decision can be overturned.
If a player scores a header from a corner that was incorrectly awarded, or if a player scores directly from a free-kick that shouldn’t have been given, the VAR team can’t currently do anything about it.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
