Aston Villa and Premier League clubs handed game-changing VAR boost as FIFA plan major overhaul

Premier League managers might soon have the opportunity to contest refereeing decisions as FIFA contemplates overhauling VAR. The English top-flight brought in VAR ahead of the 2019/2020 season, but it has been plagued with issues ever since.

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

Recently, Aston Villa were incensed by a couple of contentious decision during their 2-0 defeat at Liverpool, while Wolves have long complained about their treatment at the hands of VAR.

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.

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, reports the Mirror.

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 watch a replay of the incident.

Unlike VAR, the replay operator simply prepares the video, leaving the match referee to review his own decision without any prior indication of a clear and obvious error. Currently, the challenge system is designed for leagues with limited resources, ideally utilising no more than four cameras.

Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA's referees' committee, has maintained that the FVS system has garnered positive feedback from its use in tournaments. "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," Collina shared with ESPN.

"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."

He added: "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."

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