LONDON: Premier League clubs have agreed in principle to introduce Video Assistant Referees (VAR) to the competition in the 2019-20 season.
At a shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, clubs were provided with an update on the non-live VAR trials being undertaken by the League and Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) this season. Key learnings from VAR’s use in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, and other leagues across the world, were discussed in detail.
The Premier League’s non-live testing programme will remain in place for the rest of this season, with a continued emphasis on those Saturday afternoons which have several matches being played concurrently, and developing a clear protocol for communicating VAR decisions to fans.
The league will now formally make a request to the International Football Association Board and FIFA to use the VAR next season.
Recently, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed the inclusion of VAR at the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup 2019 in the UAE along the lines of the African Cup of Nations, which has introduced the technology at the same stage this year.
VAR was also used for the first time at this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia and has been included from the quarterfinals of South America’s premier club competition, the Copa Libertadores in 2018 as well. It will be introduced in the UEFA Champions League from the 2019-2020 season.
