LONDON — Football’s lawmakers could act to give VAR even more powers before the World Cup with discussions ongoing over fouls that occur just before the ball is in play at set-pieces.
VAR will already have an expanded role from this summer, with video assistant referees able to review red cards that result from a wrongful second booking, mistaken identity involving a second yellow card, and also intervene if a corner kick has been wrongly awarded instead of a goal kick.
But former top official Pierluigi Collina, now FIFA’s chief refereeing officer and chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, said the International Football Association Board (IFAB) is still looking at changing protocols to give VAR more scope to intervene at set-pieces.
During a briefing, Collina used the example of England’s goal in the 1-1 friendly draw with Uruguay in March, arguing Ben White’s goal should not have stood as Adam Wharton made a clear block to prevent defender Jose Maria Gimenez challenging for the ball.
“We are convinced that this goal cannot stand, it is completely unfair,” Collina said.
“At the moment we have no solution but IFAB is working on it, so we are very confident to receive a clarification from IFAB before the World Cup, saying that VAR can intervene just before the ball is in play.
“If a foul is committed just before the ball is in play, we are convinced that nobody can object to something,” he added according to PA Media.
Asked if that would be a change to VAR protocol or a change to the laws of the game, Collina said he did not want to prejudge any decision from IFAB.
“I don’t want to spoil the conclusion before it is taken,” he said. “Of course we will have some discussion. I think something is being done at the very last moment.”
FIFA is also keen to clamp down on the growing issue of teams using injuries to break up play and hold team talks mid-game while players receive treatment.
IFAB discussed the issue in March but was unable to find a solution. However, Collina said the matter had been raised during a workshop involving the head coaches of all 48 teams heading to this summer’s World Cup.
Although referees will have no sanctions at their disposal, Collina said referees would be “proactive” in preventing teams unfairly taking advantage of injuries.
“We will not allow the teams going to the benches when a goalkeeper is lying on the ground injured,” he said.
“The goalkeeper has the right to be injured, but the players do not have the right to leave the field of play to have some sort of time out with their respective coaches…
“I’m afraid we didn’t get a shared solution (on sanctions), a solution agreed by everybody. For this season, IFAB didn’t take any decision. Certainly something will be done in the future. For the time being, we rely on players’ understanding of the problem.
“We told them, ‘Be aware that we know’ so what we can avoid is having all the players off the field of play. There are captains, there are coaches, so certainly referees will be ready to face something like this if it should happen.”
