Refereeing: "VAR, one of the biggest changes in the history of football" (P. Collina, FIFA)

"VAR has been one of the biggest changes in the history of football, so it is understandable that it takes people time to comprehend and appreciate it," said Pierluigi Collina (ITA), chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, on the 6^th anniversary of the first use of the video assistant referee in an international match on 01/09/2022.

Italy - France (1-3) a friendly at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari (ITA) on 01/09/2016 was indeed the very first international match in which the central referee, Bjorn Kuipers (NED), was able to resort to VAR, which he used on two occasions (to determine the colour of a card following a foul by French defender Djibril Sidibé and to clarify a situation in the French penalty area that could have resulted in a penalty for Italy).

"In the six years since, VAR has not brought the 'end of football', as some reported at the time, but instead it is now part of the fabric of our sport, and it is hard to imagine football without it," said the former international referee.

"There is now much greater awareness across the world of the VAR process, and it has become…