August 23 – After just two Premier League match days and VAR controversy throughout the league, FIFA’s law-making body IFAB has told the Premier League to get in line with a universal usage of the video referee system.
July 22 – The English Premier League is expecting the introduction of video assistant referees to cause controversy next season.
April 1 – Former UEFA president Michel Platini, who always resisted extending goalline technology to other forms of scientific aids for referees, has once again waded into the debate over the video assistant refereeing system, partly blaming the media for its implementation.
February 25 – Brazilian elite football has adopted VAR for the upcoming 2019 season after a unanimous vote in favour of the video review technology. Next year the Supercup will be reintroduced, but a measure to limit teams to firing one coach per season was rejected.
February 15 – Despite a hugely controversial offside call at Ajax that went Real Madrid’s way and could have changed the outcome of the game, the Video Assistant Referee system “worked perfectly” at all stadiums that hosted first leg games in the last 16 of the Champions League this week, according to UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Roberto Rosetti.
By Paul Nicholson
January 24 – The 2019 Asian Cup has been a tournament of firsts and in Dubai today there will be another. The Japan vs Vietnam quarter final will be the first time VAR has been used at an AFC event.
January 4 – Asia is striking a blow for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system by introducing it in the knockout stages of the Asian Cup that gets under way this weekend.
October 5 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has moved to integrate the Video Assistant Referees, VAR, into its major club competitions. On Thursday, CAF announced that the VAR will feature in the finals of this season’s African Champions League and Confederation Cup.
September 28 – UEFA have taken the plunge and will introduce video assistant referees (VAR) in the Champions League from the 2019-20 season.
August 22 – UEFA, whose president Aleksander Ceferin has resisted video assistant referees in his club competitions, are considering a partial about-turn and could introduce VARs in the Champions League from the quarterfinal onwards, according to The Times newspaper.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – The controversies continue to rage but FIFA’s refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina and his colleagues insist the introduction of video assistant referees (Vars) has been an unqualified success in Russia.
May 10 – Following an almost incessant spate of controversial incidents using VARs in countries where it has been experimented with, FIFA’s Director of Refereeing has shrugged off concerns about the system being a success at the World Cup.
March 8 – Little more than a month before kickoff at the World Cup, where video assistant referees are being used for the first time in football’s showpiece competition, the system has come in for yet more criticism – not over the principle of implementation but over the technical process.
May 3 – Roma president James Pallotta says it will be an “absolute joke” if video assistant referees are not introduced in the Champions League after his side were cruelly knocked out by Liverpool 7-6 on aggregate in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
May 1 – FIFA have named the 13 video assistant referees who could become heroes or villains with their decision making at next month’s World Cup in Russia.