Legendary former referee Pierlugui Collina, now FIFA’s ref chief, has confirmed that VAR will be used to adjudicate on second yellow cards and the award of corners
Pierluigi Collina has promised there will be no further delays despite extra VAR checks during the World Cup.
FIFA referees’ chief Collina confirmed they are ready to use Video Assistant Referees to look at second yellow cards and also the award of corner kicks at next summer’s delay.
Collina said the wrong decision on a sending-off or a corner which leads to a winning goal could ruin the whole World Cup which is why they will use VAR to decide more contentious issues.
Ex-World Cup referee Collina said: “I repeat what I have said. We are in a process of discussions. As always there are opinions, different opinions. I think we should all have as the objective to make correct decisions on the field of play.
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“It would be a pity if the result of a competition is decided not by what the players do on the field of play but by an honest mistake made by the decision maker. This is what convinced us 13, 14 years ago to start thinking how to support referees [with technology].
“So if we can get this, to me, it’s positive. We discuss and we will see what will be the outcome because I think the objective would be worth it.
“The main criteiria is no delay. With corners, there is a physiological delay because when a corner is given, normally you wait until the two centre-backs come up. It normally takes 10-15 seconds to get the attackers ready.
“In these 10-15 seconds, if the corner kick is wrongly given … everybody has the evidence that the start of play is wrong and to me, it’s difficult to understand if they have the possibility to see that [the decision is wrong] … why we have to hide our heads under the sand and hope that nothing happens on the corner kick which is taken.
“This is my opinion as I live matches in important competitions hoping the result is determined by what the players do on the field of play … if I can avoid to have this kind of circumstance I would be happy. But the main idea – no delay! Nobody wants to introduce any further delay.”
Collina also stressed that they are so committed to stamping out delays that they are trying a new process on time-wasting.
They have trialed during the Arab Cup tournament to stop players from coming back onto the pitch for two minutes if they go down injured.
Collina said: “We have seen no incidents in eight matches and that means it works.”
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