Video Assistant Referee – The next 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) which will take place in Morocco will be having a new kind of technical assistant for a more explicit observation during matches.
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was first used at the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. It was also in use at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup and 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Korea and Russia respectively.
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This time VAR will be making its way to the 2019 CHAN to curb prevailing cases of irregularities during matches.
This was confirmed by the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) on their official website on Tuesday, November 28, following a meeting by its Referees’ Committee on Monday in Cairo, Egypt.
This will be the first time VAR will be used in a CAF competition according to the body’s Referee’s Committee. This committee is made up of former international referees, who are now well-experienced instructors.
These experienced referees have been assigned specific geographical zones areas to ensure the implementation of the decisions taken by the Committee and the permanent monitoring of referees on the CAF lists.
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CAF’s Referee Committee held a meeting on Monday, November 27, to finalize on the usage of the latest technology.
At the meeting, Suleiman Waberi, who chairs the committee, enlightened members on the importance to make collective decisions to improve officiating on the continent.
The experimentation of the VAR technology will commence from the quarter-finals stage of next year’s tournament scheduled for 13 January to 4 February. The test running will be carried out in 4 Moroccan cities of Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangiers and Agadir.
It was also agreed at the meeting that all Member Associations will have a functional Refereeing Department. The CAF Refereeing Department will be equipped with a video unit and will also establish a performance rating system for referees.
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