FIFA to hand Premier League managers referee decision VAR power in huge rule change

Premier League managers may soon have the opportunity to contest refereeing decisions as FIFA contemplates overhauling VAR. The English top-flight introduced VAR in the 2019/20 season, but it has been plagued with issues ever since.

Managers, players, pundits and fans alike have grown frustrated with the system. Howard Webb, PGMOL's chief refereeing officer, has tried to clarify misunderstandings about VAR, but has also had to frequently apologise for his officials' decisions.

Currently, only referees can use the system, with VARs initiating reviews of incidents. However, this could be about to change, with FIFA considering allowing coaches to challenge decisions themselves.

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ESPN reports that FIFA is seeking permission from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to continue trials of Football Video Support (FVS). This system would enable coaches to challenge decisions.

FVS has already been trialled at this year's U20 and U17 FIFA Women's World Cups, after being approved for testing by the IFAB in March. It is believed that FIFA now wants to extend the system to other competitions.

The system allows coaches to makeup to two challenges per match if they believe a mistake has been made. The referee then goes to the side of the pitch to view a replay of the incident.

FIFA's new Football Video Review (FVR) system, without the involvement of a VAR, simply uses a replay operator to cue up video for the match referee who then re-assesses his own decisions. Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA's referees' committee, spoke on the early trials of the technology: "We are at the beginning of the trial and the experiences at both the U20 and U17 FIFA Women's World Cup will be carefully analysed but so far, we haven't noticed anything unexpected," as he told ESPN.

He added optimism about its future implementation: "As agreed, FIFA will present a report at the next IFAB ABM and request to continue the trial on a wider basis. Several FIFA member associations already showed the interest to participate to the trial. If IFAB will give the permission, next year there will be several competitions using FVS."

Collina also noted positive initial reactions: "Even though [the U20 and U17 FIFA Women's World Cup] was the first experience, both for the teams and the match officials, we feel that the outcome was very positive. We conducted a survey with the coaches after the tournament which showed that FVS was positively received and considered worthy to be used in the future."