South Africa's head of referees Victor Gomes has confirmed that the implementation of VAR technology in South African football will soon be unveiled.
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology has been effective and controversial across some of the major leagues in Europe. Still, Gomes has confirmed that it was the future of football and that the PSL would soon follow international trends to use VAR in the DStv Premiership imminently.
“We’re sitting for some budgetary costs in the next two weeks, and that’s how far we are already,” Gomes said speaking to the media at the COSAFA awards in Johannesburg.
“We’ve been working for the past year but it’s not something that you can switch on and say, ‘We’re ready to do it’. You need to go through the processes and the budgets, so it’s quite intense.
“VAR is the future of football.
“It will help the PSL, it will help any league in the world. VAR is here to stay.
“We are not ready, but it’s a process. I keep saying that it’s like a pilot license, there are a certain number of hours that referees need to go through.
“We are ready to start their training and I would say it’s not only referees, the broadcasters and all of that stuff need to come on board with that. It’s a big process and we don’t want to rush something and get it wrong.
“We want to bring it in and do it correctly so that everybody trusts it,” Gomes added.
The Chairperson of the South African Football Association (SAFA) National Referees Committee (NRC) Victor Gomes says the implementation of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the country is imminent!
— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) May 10, 2024
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