Referees at the 2023 Women’s World Cup will announce VAR decisions to television viewers and fans at stadiums through loudspeakers, FIFA confirmed on Wednesday.
At a press briefing, FIFA said that the new system — which has been used at the Club World Cup in Morocco and the U-20 World Cup in Argentina — will now be used at a tier-one tournament for the first time.
The system is designed to improve transparency around VAR decisions. In February, chairman of FIFA’s referee committee Pierluigi Collina said that the NFL was an inspiration for the new implementation.
“We decided to have this trial because we received some requests to make the decision taken by the referee after a VAR intervention more understandable for all the football stakeholders, namely the spectators at the stadium, or in front of the television,” Collina said.
“I have to say that there are other experiences in other sports, namely the NFL in American football, who have been doing this for quite a long time. It seems that the referees are pretty comfortable with this.”
The on-field referee will wear a microphone and explain VAR decisions after they have been made, with those explanations broadcast on television and to in-person fans through the stadium’s loudspeaker.
It’s expected that referees will only explain the decision itself, rather than the decision-making process behind it.
[lawrence-related id=22505,22390,21229]