Egypt is set to become the first African country to use the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.
According to local media, Essam Abdel-Fattah, a former World Cup referee, said the EFA had been given the green light to test the new technology by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, which broadcasts all football games in the country.
The Premier League will test the VAR at its stadiums in the last round of the domestic league this week, the Egyptian Football Association’s (EFA) refereeing chief said on Tuesday.
“Everything is in place now to use the VAR. The test will begin in Wednesday’s Egyptian Premier League matches,” Abdel-Fattah told Egyptian football website FilGoal.com.
“If the trial is successful, it will also be implemented in the Egypt Cup matches.”
VAR uses two video assistant referees who monitor the action on screens and call the match referee’s attention to mistakes or omissions.
It has been used in several FIFA tournaments, including last year’s Club World Cup and the 2017 Confederations Cup, which was won by Germany on Sunday following a 1-0 victory over Chile in a match that saw the referee controversially fail to dismiss Chile’s Gonzalo Jara for an elbow on Timo Werner despite watching a video replay.
It is not clear yet whether the EFA will install more cameras to help the video assistant referee, given its limited resources.
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