Question Number: 33193

League Specific 3/28/2019

RE: premier Adult

maukudi abdullahi of lokoja, kogi nigeria asks...

Good day to every body in the house. please I just want to know. Is the VAR officials are retired referees or still active?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Maukudi
It will vary from association to association depending on what resources they have available. In the U.K. in competitions where VAR is used such as the FA Cup the VAR official is a current high level referee.
In the last World Cup in Russia the VAR team consisted of the video assistant referee (VAR) and he had three assistant video assistant referees (AVAR1, AVAR2 and AVAR3). All the video assistant referee team members were top FIFA match officials.
The FIFA Referee Committee had selected 13 current Referees, who acted solely as video assistant referees. Some of the Referees and Assistant Referees who were selected for the World Cup also acted as Video Match Officials to assist the VAR officials.
I hope that helps.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Maukudi,
According to the IFAB's VAR protocol, it is more or less determined by what is available to the organisers of a competition and they can be either current or former referees. The document states that:

''Selection of VARs will inevitably depend on resources and the technology system (match centre or VAR at the stadium). However, VARs should have experience of refereeing at the top level in the competition concerned and can only be:
- current top level referees
- recently retired top level referees
- former top level referees still actively involved in refereeing''