Fifa is in talks with potential sponsors for branding of a video referee system at the World Cup in Russia this summer, its commercial chief has revealed. Football’s governing body has also taken another step towards allowing video assistant referees (VAR) to be adopted worldwide after deciding that any competition wishing to use such a system will have to gain approval first from the International FA Board (Ifab).
Ifab deferred a final decision on authorising the use of VAR beyond trials until its annual meeting in March but said the results of experiments were “positive and encouraging”. Fifa’s head of technology said no further trials appeared to be needed, though the Premier League will not make a decision on VAR for next season until April.
Separately, Fifa’s chief commercial officer, Philippe Le Floc’h, said VAR would be used in the World Cup in Russia. “It’s great to have technology in football because this is also a fair[ness] thing,” he said. Asked about potential sponsors of a VAR system, he added: “We are talking to various technological companies who are very interested with what we are doing on the technology side of things.”
If an incident is reviewed by a VAR, there could be an opportunity for Fifa to brand the segment on the global broadcast feed.
David Elleray, the technical director of Ifab, said that Fifa had already been training officials in VAR in anticipation of the World Cup but would wait until March for the final go-ahead. “The results of the trials are very encouraging indeed — the mantra of minimum interference and maximum benefit appears to be holding strong,” he told The Times. “Out of 804 matches, 553 had no review or interruption.”
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Results of the trials have shown 98.9 per cent decision accuracy over the 804 competitive matches. Ifab said 100 per cent accuracy was impossible because of subjectivity in decision-making.
Elleray said Ifab was keen to ensure that minimum standards were met for VAR systems, so all competitions would have to pass tests to gain approval.
