For the first time ever, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was given a role to play on the biggest stage of any football tournament – the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™. The VAR system is a form of technology, along with cameras, a 3D offside line system and a VAR information system, used to help ensure the fairness of the games by assisting the referee to make instant judgements and rulings with greater accuracy on the field.

The FIFA Referee Committee selected 13 qualified referees worldwide to support all 64 matches in this year’s World Cup. Four referees from the pool formed a VAR team for each game, sitting in a special hub in Moscow and constantly monitoring all the FIFA host broadcaster camera feeds. Among these 33 broadcast cameras, 8 were super-slow motion cameras and 4 were ultra-slow motion, along with two extra offside cameras to support the VAR. The cameras support slow motion and normal speed replays for verifying factual situations and subjective judgements respectively.

With a 3D offside line system, some of the most important refereeing decisions in the game can even be reversed as a result. This system is completely automatic in calibration and line tracking, in which the computer-generated virtual offside lines can be projected onto the broadcast image of the field of play to help the VAR team determine whether an offside offense has occurred. To prevent disrupting the game unduly, VAR can only be used for four sorts of incidents, namely goals and offences leading up to a goal, penalty decisions and offences leading up to a penalty, direct red cards, and mistaken identity. The VAR team can signal the on-field referee in the event of a confusing incident, or vice versa, giving advice to the referee on any uncertainties or elements of a play which may otherwise be difficult to identify. VAR has already left its mark on this year’s World Cup, but still, the new technology only serves in an advisory capacity, while the final decision on every play ultimately rests with the referee.

The VAR information system is used to automatically create VAR-specific graphic templates for TV and the giant screen in the stadium. In the event of any of the four match-changing situations, a FIFA staff member would inform the broadcasters, commentators and infotainment about the review process and the outcome of the review via a networked touch tablet.