UEFA Champions League to introduce Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in 2019/20 season

The elite European footballing body, UEFA, on Thursday has announced they will be bringing in the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system to Champions League from 2019/20 season.

VAR has been one of the biggest topics on which fans and experts have debated upon in the last few years. It was becoming apparent as time rolled by that some kind of technological interference has to be done when it comes to correcting the gaffe or some of the calls the referees make on the pitch.

Be it a penalty kick, a red-card or a goal that is disallowed, many of these problems existed in modern football.

Thankfully, these qualms are set to be rested for the European clubs as from the next season onwards, questionable calls are going to be verified by VAR.

“We are confident that introducing Video Assistant Referees in August 2019 will give us enough time to put in place a robust system and to train match officials to ensure an efficient and successful implementation of VAR in the UEFA Champions League, the world’s flagship club competition,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin while addressing the media.

VAR will be part of the UEFA Euro 2020 and the 2019 UEFA Super Cup.

#UEFAExCo exclusive: The video assistant referee (VAR system) will be used in the UEFA @ChampionsLeague from next season (2019/20)

It will also be used in:

?#SuperCup 2019
?@UEFAEURO 2020 final tournament
?@EuropaLeague 2020/21
?#NationsLeague Finals 2021

More to follow pic.twitter.com/C4jmNPNZ8Z

— UEFA (@UEFA) September 27, 2018

But, the Europa League will not be adopting the VAR technology until the group stage of the tournament in 2020/21 season.

FIFA introduced VAR for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and it was a resounding success.

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However, there still remain some questions attached to this technological intervention.

At the recently concluded FIFA World Cup, most of the times the referees did use VAR when they were in doubt over their decision. But, in some glaring cases, some of them didn’t. This caused some of the teams and the fans to pull their hair in frustration.

If technology is given to you, which will not only act as your assistant but also save you from possible embarrassment, why aren’t you using it?

Was it the question that these referees weren’t educated about the use of this technology or the rigidness of their attitude towards pure football.

These are some of the issues that need to be cleared by the sanctioning bodies before introducing VAR to modern football.