Video Referees: "FIFA successfully conducted its first official 'semi-live' VAR test" (FIFA)

"With VAR, we help the referees and we protect the game. We turned a new page in football’s history book," said Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, in Bari (ITA), on 02/09/2016. "FIFA successfully conducted its first official 'semi-live' Video Assistant Referees (VAR) test during a friendly match between Italy - France in Bari (1-3, at the Stadio San Nicola, 58,000 capacity, on Thursday, 01/09/2016). Certain aspects of the match could be analysed without impacting the flow of the match."

"After this very pleasant experience, we will see where the VAR tests are leading us. We need more tests. We will continue with testing VAR until 2018," added Gianni Infantino in a statement.

"We took a historic decision for football. The IFAB and FIFA have now taken hand in this debate instead of blocking it," declared the new president of FIFA, at the conclusion of the 130^th Annual General Meeting of the International Football Association Board, on 05/03/2016, which decided to organise experiments for at least two years regarding "video assistance for match officials".

"The referee is the only person…