Infantino says ‘nothing in the way’ of using VAR at 2018 World Cup

FIFA president Gianni Infantino signalled that he is in favour of introducing video assistant referees (VAR) at next year’s World Cup following its success at the Confederations Cup, although he conceded the system needs to be improved.“Nothing is standing in the way of using VAR (at the World Cup), as far as I’m concerned,” Infantino told a news conference in the Russian city of St Petersburg on the eve of the Confederations Cup final.“So far it has been successful. We are learning, we are improving, we are continuing the tests.”VAR involves two video assistant referees watching the on-pitch action remotely and then drawing the match referee’s attention to officiating mistakes.

FIFA said the system corrected six game-changing decisions during the Confederations Cup.“Without the VARs, we would have had a different tournament,” Infantino said.“And a tournament which would have been a little less fair.”

But Infantino, who said that the system had been tested so far in 74 matches, added that certain aspects needed to be refined.“We need to work still on some of the details, on the communication and the speed of the decisions being taken,” he said.

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