Australian Championship to trial VAR-lite for FIFA in playoffs

SYDNEY: The Australian Championship will trial FIFA’s new Football Video Support (FVS), a slimmed-down version of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, during its playoffs over the next few weeks, Football Australia said on Wednesday.

FVS has been developed by soccer’s world governing body to meet demand from countries and leagues that do not have the financial resources to support VAR, which is now ubiquitous in international and elite club football.

Instead of a VAR official on the sidelines watching video of the game and communicating with the referee, the use of FVS will be triggered by coaches requesting reviews of incidents on a limited number of occasions during a match.

The coaches can ask for a review only in the case of disputes over goals, penalties, direct red cards and situations where they believe the referee has cautioned or sent off the wrong player.

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The referee will then review video footage on a pitchside monitor and either confirm or reverse their call.

FIFA expects the limited number of camera angles to result in some decisions standing because of inconclusive evidence.

FIFA has already trialled the system in international age-group tournaments where coaches were allowed two appeals per match, retaining a review when it was successful.

Australia’s A-League was the first top-flight domestic league in the world to utilise VAR in 2017.

The Australian Championship was launched this year as a national second-tier competition and has proved a big success with fans.

“Introducing Football Video Support reflects the kind of organisation we want to be, one that embraces innovation, pushes boundaries and continually looks for new ways to elevate our competitions,” said Football Australia chief executive Heather Garriock.

“We’ll work closely with FIFA throughout the trial to ensure the system strengthens our match standards but also on how FVS could be introduced into other competitions around Australia.”