VAR – Football Technology at the 2018 FIFA World Cup
5 ESSENTIAL FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT VAR
- A video assistant referee team supports the match officials during all 64 matches.
- The video assistant referee team is located in a centralised video operation room in Moscow.
- The video assistant referee team has access to all relevant broadcast cameras and two dedicated offside cameras.
- The video assistant referee does not take any decisions; he supports the referee in the decision making process and the final decision can only be taken by the referee.
- Football fans will be informed about the review process by broadcasters, commentators and infotainment.
THE VAR TEAM
The team consists of the video assistant referee (VAR) and his three assistant video assistant referees (AVAR1, AVAR2 and AVAR3). All video assistant referee team members are top FIFA match officials.
The FIFA Referee Committee has selected 13 Referees, who will act solely as video assistant referees during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™.
The selection criteria for the VAR Team was primarily based on their experience as Video Match Officials in their respective National Associations and Confederation competitions, in addition to their successful participation in several preparatory seminars and FIFA competitions, where they enhanced their VAR knowledge and skills by using the system.
In addition to the 13 Video Assistant Referees, some of the Referees and Assistant Referees who were selected for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia will also act as Video Match Officials during FIFA’s main competition. These appointments will be made before the matches.
List of Match Officials for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™
Four replay operators select and provide the best camera angles. Two of them pre-select the most likely camera angles while the other two provide the final angles chosen by the VAR and the AVAR2 for each checked or reviewed incident.