A significant step has been made towards the implementation of the VAR system in Ukrainian football

01.11.2019 23:10

Photo by uefa.com

Today, for the first time in Ukraine, the VAR video repeater system was tested in live mode at an official football match.

The match of the youth championship of Ukraine among the teams of U-19 "Dynamo" Kyiv - "Karpaty" Lviv became the first in which the VAR system did not work offline, as it has repeatedly happened this season in the Premier League and Cup of Ukraine, but in live mode. And immediately the help of the system was needed in a difficult game episode, and the referee's decision, made with her help, affected the final result!

In the 73rd minute, the referee of the match Mykola Balakin with the help of VAR made sure that the player of the team "Karpaty" had a handball in his penalty area, and appointed the 11-meter goal, which was realized by Dynamo Vladislav Vanat, establishing how it turned out , the final result - 2: 2.

It should be noted that the use of VAR in live mode is the next step on the way to full implementation of the system in Ukrainian football. As early as November, IFAB representatives will arrive in Ukraine to evaluate the results of our semi-annual training of our arbitrators and VAR testing. We hope that after obtaining the necessary conclusions, the system will be able to be fully used in Ukraine online. We expect this to happen in early 2020.

"It is extremely gratifying that the initiative I proposed about two years ago is now in the final stages of implementation," said Andriy Pavelko, President of the UAF, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, commenting on the results of the next stage of the system.