IFAB meets competition organisers interested in video experiments - IFAB
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The leagues and associations that have expressed an interest in running experiments with video assistant referees (VARs) will be meeting with IFAB and FIFA officials today in London.
The IFAB agreed at its recent Annual General Meeting for such experiments to be conducted over a minimum of two years in order to answer the question of whether the implementation of VARs would improve the game.
Based on a detailed implementation protocol, the experiments will be overseen by The IFAB with the support of FIFA’s Technology & Innovation Department. This will include a research study involving the participating competition organisers, technology providers and a selected independent institute or university, to focus not only on the refereeing outcomes but also the effect on the game itself including the impressions of the various stakeholders.
Today’s meeting will provide an opportunity for interested leagues and associations to find out more about the experiments and the requirements they would need to meet in order to take part, such as referee training, minimum technological requirements and project management factors.
After the meeting, they will be given time to consider the information before deciding whether or not they would like to conduct the experiments, when and in which competition. It is expected that in May, The IFAB will be in a position to confirm in which competitions the experiments will take place.
The IFAB is also working to finalise a schedule for the next 24 months, which will include a pre-testing phase with experiments done in a controlled environment, referee training sessions, workshops and on-site preparation before “offline” and/or live experiments begin. Further information will follow in due course.