The International Football Association Board has unanimously endorsed the usage of the video assistant referee into law, paving the way for the technology to be used at the World Cup in Russia.
The final authorisation should, however, follow on March 16 at the FIFA Council meeting in Colombia.
“As of today, video assistant refereeing is part of football," said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
The IFAB believes the controversial moments of the game that have usually characterized the World Cup with be amended with the introduction of the VAR at the tournament.
in the first round of the German Bundesliga, 39 mistakes were corrected by the VAR, making huge claim for its usage at the World Cup and in other football tournaments to be necessary.
The technology was also employed at the FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2017 and, was, for the first time in the history of Africa, used at the CHAN tournament which was hosted by 2026 World Cup hopeful – Morocco.
In a statement IFAB called the unanimous decision a ‘historic step for football’ and VAR ‘represents a new era for football.’
FIFA President Infantino has been a long supporter of the VAR.
“From the approximately thousand games that were part of the experiment, the level of accuracy of the decision-making increased from 93% to 99% - 99% of decisions were correct thanks to VAR,” highlighted Infantino.
“It is almost perfect, not perfection. We have the ambition to be as close to precision and VAR certainly gets us closer.”
With the VAR receiving tremendous endorsement to be used at the World Cup, countries are assure, if not completely, massively of fairness in results of matches, reducing the level of excuses made for losing matches.
By: Sheikh Tophic Sienu @desheikh1 on twitter