VAR tweaks being considered by football lawmakers IFAB
By Bryan Swanson, Chief Reporter, Sky Sports News
Last Updated: 02/12/19 8:59am
Football lawmakers are considering whether to make changes to Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology in the game.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will hold a key meeting in Belfast on Tuesday and receive feedback from its advisory panel.
Football's most powerful administrators will discuss updates on the use of VARs around the world, including the Premier League.
"It's still relatively new technology for the game of football," Patrick Nelson, Irish Football Association chief executive and IFAB's chairman on Tuesday, told Sky Sports News. "Cricket and rugby have had it for a long time.
"We need to look at the data that we've got, from the many experiments around the world, and see if there are any tweaks to the protocol that we need to make, to make it better for everyone in the game."
Premier League referees' chief Mike Riley is expected to hold talks on VAR standards with former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
Wenger, FIFA's new Chief of Global Football Development, is also a member of IFAB's football and technical advisory panels and he is expected to attend the discussion in Northern Ireland.
But Nelson stressed that IFAB will only focus on VAR's impact on the global game, where technology is currently used in 25 countries.
"IFAB is about the parks game, as well as the World Cup final," he explains. "A lot of the media interest, and supporter interest, tends to be around the top-end games in the professional part of football. The laws of the game, they're there for everyone. We have to take that into account all the time."
Concussion: 'Very early stages' of talks
Lawmakers will also continue to debate concussion assessment and management of players during matches, after initial talks in October.
Headway, the brain injury association, expressed its disappointment over the "unnecessary delay" in introducing concussion substitutes.
"Concussion will be one of the main issues," says Nelson. "It's a brand-new issue for IFAB. We will take this very seriously.
"We will look at how we can work within the laws of the game to try to minimise the effects of concussion. It's very, very, early stages so don't expect anything too dramatic just yet. It will be one of the key items that we discuss."
Sky Sports News has been told that temporary substitutions for footballers suspected of concussion are 'likely' to become compulsory for next summer's Euro 2020, but Nelson gave a cautious response over whether any law changes will be made at IFAB's AGM next February.
"I think it's very early stages for that," adds Nelson "The European Championships are coming up very close to us now. It could be too early for that.
"I think, from an IFAB perspective, we need to study all the data and try and make the best decisions we can for the future of the game."
IFAB is comprised of the four British associations and world football's governing body, FIFA.
