First use of in-game video replays in football takes place in United States
Tuesday 16 August 2016 00:22, UK
The United Soccer League has overseen the first trial of a Video Assistant Referee (VAR), with two controversial decisions settled by the system.
New York Red Bulls II's 5-1 win over Orlando City B was the first game to use the system after the International Football Association Board (IFAB) gave the green light to trial the benefits of the technology no later than the 2017/18 season.
Referees have permission to use VARs in four cases: to determine if a goal has been scored, red cards, penalties and mistaken identity.
Match referee Ismail Elfath opted to use the VAR just 35 minutes into the game when Orlando defender Conor Donovan fouled Red Bulls II forward Junior Flemmings on the edge of the penalty area.
The incident took 24 seconds to review from the time Elfath gave the official video monitor hand signal to then making his decision to send off Donovan.
The video replays were not used again until the 80th minute, when Orlando defender Kyle McFadden committed a dangerous challenge against Red Bulls II's Florian Valot, with Elfath ultimately awarding a yellow card after a review which took less than a minute.
"Overall, I think it went pretty well and it didn't affect the game," said Red Bulls II head coach John Wolyniec. "Obviously there was a change in the calls, but I don't think it slowed the game down in too many respects. … It went overall pretty well."
The Bundesliga became one of six competitions to approve 'offline' experiments of using video assistant referees in June, allowing referees to familiarise themselves with the set-up, assess video replays and practice making calls on clear match-changing incidents but without communicating with the referee.
English FA chief executive Martin Glenn said both the English and Scottish FAs are keen and has indicated England international games and FA Cup fixtures could be suitable to trial the system, but knows the process still faces challenges.
