Video assistant referees: multiplication of the testing within one year of the IFAB decision

Italy has requested that FIFA allow for introduction of video assistance to the referees for the 2017-18 Serie A TIM season, and the French LFP will use VAR in the new promotion-relegation play-offs between Ligue 1 and Domino's Ligue in May 2017 are just two of the examples of the testing and implementation of use of video assistance to referees multiplying significantly, less than one year of the decision of the International Football Association Board to allow such practices, which - if all goes well - could be widely installed by spring 2018.

"This is a historic decision for football. The IFAB and FIFA have now taken the lead in this debate (VAR) instead of blocking it," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the end of the 130^th Annual General Meeting of the IFAB, which decided to organise testing for at least two years of "video assistance for match officials", on 05/03/2016. In the event of a positive result, video assistance should be in service at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

"The International Board took stock of the experimentation of video assistant referees at the end…