Trials of Football Video Support (FVS), a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) alternative which sees managers able to make two ‘coach’s challenges’ in a game, have been expanded by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
IFAB announced the decision on Monday, following its annual business meeting in London.
FVS is billed as a “cost-effective alternative to VAR” and was trialled at the Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup in May and the Women’s Under-20 World Cup in September.
Similarly to VAR, the FVS system is designed to be used “in the event of a possible clear and obvious error or serious missed incident” — a goal/no goal, straight red card, penalty/no penalty or case of mistaken identity, according to a FIFA press release from May. However, unlike VAR, those decisions are not automatically checked as there is no video match official, hence the coaches making a review request to the on-field referee.
In the FVS trial, only head coaches are able to request a referee review an incident and they are allowed to do this twice per game, although they retain a review if the original decision is overturned (i.e., the review request is successful).
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This draws parallels to the coach’s challenge system in the NFL, where coaches can throw a red flag onto the field if they want the ruling on a play to be reviewed. In this system, coaches cannot challenge a subjective call by the referees and if the challenge is unsuccessful, the team loses a timeout.
However, while the NFL’s coach’s challenge is an add-on to other video replay systems in place, the FVS is designed to be used in place of VAR. FIFA said in May that FVS is its response to requests from member associations who are unable to implement VAR due to cost and number of cameras available.
FIFA says the FVS may be used in competitions where between one and four cameras are used. It also accepts that limitations on the number of cameras — in comparison to a Premier League match, where upwards of 20 may be used — may lead to inconclusive replays. In these scenarios, the on-field decision should remain.
FIFA also insists that it has “no intention whatsoever of replacing the VAR system” with FVS and that it is “committed to supporting the implementation of the VAR system, whenever possible”.
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