FIFA wants to revolutionize video refereeing

The governing body responsible for Football worldwide would like to allow coaches to “challenge” a refereeing decision, similar to what exists in tennis.

The Swiss football team has been relegated to League B of the Nations League since the 1-1 draw against Serbia at Letzigrund this Friday. It would perhaps be different if the refereeing decisions, too often to the disadvantage of the Nati in this competition, had been fairer in recent months. Or if the new technology that Fifa intends to develop was already in place.

According to The Teamthe body wishes to continue and intensify the tests of a new system: Football Video Support (FVS), an alternative to VAR through which coaches can challenge refereeing decisions at least twice per game. This is what we call “challenge” in tennis.

The French media explains that the technology was approved in March by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and tested this summer during the Women’s Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups. Fifa would now like its board, in charge of the laws of the game, to authorize it to continue testing and go further.

Former Italian referee Pierluigi Colina, head of the FIFA referees committee, specifies in the columns of The Team that the experiments carried out during the two World Cups will be analyzed meticulously, and that for the moment, there is “nothing unexpected” with the first results. Several leagues have already shown a certain interest in participating in the next experiments. However, Colina would like to clarify that the FVS does not have the same degree of precision as the VAR.

Despite the system’s shortcomings, FVS is interesting in many ways. It would give power to coaches for the very first time and they could influence the course of a game. We imagine that the Mannschaft coach would have used it at the Euro to force the referees to analyze Marc Cucurella’s hand in the penalty area, while the VAR, very regularly criticized, did not see fit to do so. to intervene.

Murat Yakin would also have had many opportunities to draw his joker since the start of the League of Nations, so that certain situations could be better studied. But FVS is not yet available, and it will take a long time before it can compete with or be coupled with VAR. His future is in the hands of the IFAB and Yakin will probably no longer be at the head of the Swiss team when he democratizes.

(roc)

This mascot of an American football club took a big risk on Saturday evening, which could have cost him dearly.

In American sports, mascots are an integral part of the show. During the match or during breaks, they often attempt sporting feats – keeping their disguises on, of course – to impress the audience. We think, for example, of the mascots of basketball clubs in the NBA, with the dunks they perform after bouncing on a trampoline.