MLS, Bundesliga among 1st to test video-assisted refereeing
Major League Soccer's oft-criticized officials might soon be getting a helping hand on the sidelines.
The U.S./Canadian top flight will be among the first leagues to participate in an experiment on the usage of video replay technology, FIFA and the International Football Association Board announced Thursday.
"We believe the time has come for a mechanism that helps referees avoid clearly incorrect decisions that change the game," MLS commissioner Don Garber said in the league statement.
MLS is joined by the German Bundesliga and Australia's Hyundai A-League, as well as various competitions in the Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil, as trialists of video-assistant referee (VAR) implementation. The tests will last two years, according to the IFAB.
MLS plans to first implement the trials in the USL.
FIFA says the role of VARs is to "assist the referee to determine whether there was an infringement that means a goal should not be awarded," as well as to "ensure that no clearly wrong decisions are made" for penalty decisions and avoid cases of mistaken identity in red-card incidents.
Referees sit in a control room with screens and communicate with the match official via headsets, reviewing footage before advising the referee of their call on any given situation.
Depending on the initial tests, the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan could be the first FIFA-organised event to utilize video assistance. The first round of tests will be "offline," before live tests are carried out in-match.
"The IFAB believes the best way to answer the question of whether the use of VARs will improve the game is to test it in different regions, so we are delighted to already have competitions across four confederations sign up," IFAB secretary Lukas Brud said in a statement.
"The organisers of these competitions can now begin installing and testing video replay facilities as well as training match officials and technical staff in line with the protocol and in consultation with the IFAB and FIFA's Football Technology Innovation Department."
Other footballing associations may soon begin to experiment with VARs.
"There are others that are very interested but need to hold further consultations with their key stakeholders and with different technology providers," Brud said. "They still have time and we expect to be able to officially confirm additional participants in the coming months."