Pierluigi Collina warns that even with VAR technology, “there will continue to be incidents that divide opinion and the referee must make a final decision.”
The video replay technology, with two officials in the booth watching and passing on information the referee might want to look at again, was introduced this season in Serie A and the Bundesliga.
It is spreading to Spain and France, as well as the 2018 World Cup, while there have been calls for it to be used in the Champions League.
Pierluigi Collina warns that even with VAR technology, “there will continue to be incidents that divide opinion and the referee must make a final decision.”
The video replay technology, with two officials in the booth watching and passing on information the referee might want to look at again, was introduced this season in Serie A and the Bundesliga.
It is spreading to Spain and France, as well as the 2018 World Cup, while there have been calls for it to be used in the Champions League.
“In football, the interpretation of the referee is very important. There are and will continue to be incidents that divide opinion even after the game is finished and the referee must make a final decision,” UEFA Head of Referees Collina told news agency Ansa.
“There are many other sports where technology, such as instant replays or overhead cameras, have been implemented for many years. However, in these sports, it is used purely for objective decisions, not subjective ones open to interpretation.
“Doing the same thing in football would mean limiting the ability to intervene too much, as it would only be to tell offside positions or if a foul was inside the box, but not for something such as handball and it would be a shame not to use VAR for those situations too.”
VAR will be used at the World Cup in Russia this summer and the officials from all over the globe are being trained at the Coverciano centre near Florence.
“I realise it’s very attractive to talk about this novelty, but I think it more important to underline the good work done by the referees to ensure they don’t always need to look to VAR.
“We are doing very intensive and careful work with the referees and help from Coaches who instruct players to replicate situations that are important for a referee to decide on.
“The idea behind all of this is to help the referee, who will then have to make those decisions on the field in a pressure situation.”