FIFA president Gianni Infantino is in favor of having Video Assistant Referees in place by the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Infantino made the comments to Le Parisien on Monday, making it a real possibility that the World Cup, a referee inside of a van with access to video technology can advise a match official on calls that might have been missed.
“We will multiply (the tests) over the two-year period and decide in March 2018,” Infantino said in French, according to Agence France-Presse. “I hope we will have video refereeing in time for the 2018 World Cup.”
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The United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal and Qatar are the national federations that are currently participating in or have applied to be part of the experimentation process with VAR, according to FIFA earlier this month after having reported “extraordinary progress” being made.
“The key question will always be for any reviewable incident: ‘was the referee’s decision clearly wrong?'” according to FIFA.
“The over-riding philosophy, is “minimum interference, maximum benefit” i.e. reviews will be rare, but when they do occur, they will be for the clear benefit of the game. It is important the game’s flow and emotions not be constantly interrupted by reviews.”
Infantino told Le Parisien of his initial concerns that video would slow down matches, “But I have come to the conclusion after tests that this is not the case.”