All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey is all set to meet members of the Referee Committee on December 31. The AIFF chief will review refereeing issues and discuss the matters with the members of the Refereeing Committee, AIFF Chief Refereeing Officer (CRO) Trevor Kettle, and a team of Referee Assessors.
AIFF mulls use of VAR
AIFF announced its plans to introduce VAR in both Indian Super League and I-League from the 2025-26 season.
The VAR system was first introduced in the 2016-17 FIFA season. It supports the referee’s decision-making in four critical situations: goal-scoring and goal-related offences; penalty decisions and penalty-related offences; direct red card situations; and mistaken identity situations.
It now looks like the AIFF has found a way to implement the much-needed system from the 2025-26 season.
“There will be a big decision on the introduction of VAR very soon. We are doing a study on that,” AIFF acting Secretary General M Satyanarayan told PTI in an interview.
Notably, Satyanarayan, became the acting Secretary General on November 9 after the unceremonious removal of Shaji Prabhakaran on “breach of trust”.
Satyanarayan is sure to add some brownie points from the Indian football fans after the announcement on VAR. However, he said it would be tough to implement VAR from next season.