After months of training, the VAR football technology will be used for the first time in Croatia on September 22, 2019.
Namely, the Croatian Football Federation announced at the end of 2018 that it would begin the training of assistant video referees and prepare for the introduction of VAR technology into Croatian football. After the extensive training of referees, VAR technology is finally ready to premiere at an official match, announced HNS on Friday.
Ante Kulušić, HNS Vice-President, President of the Football Refereeing Commission, and project leader for the introduction of VAR technology in Croatia, announced that the VAR technology would premiere at the Junior Croatian First League game between Rudeš and Hajduk. The match will be played on September 22 at Kranjčevićeva Street Stadium, starting at 11 am.
With this match, Croatia will open the final phase of training referees for the introduction of VAR technology, according to the schedule prescribed by FIFA and IFAB. Referees began training for VAR technology in January 2019, with plans that by the end of the autumn part of the current season, all referees who have reached the final stage of the education will meet the required conditions, so that they can begin using the VAR technology in the spring part of the season in matches of the Croatian First League.
The match between the juniors of Rudeš and Hajduk will be refereed by Ivan Bebek, with assistant referees Ivica Modrić and Igor Križarić and fourth official Fran Jović. The role of the Assistant Video Referee (VAR) will be performed by Goran Gabrilo, and his Assistant (AVAR) will be Miro Grgić.
The VAR technology project was funded by the FIFA program Forward.
The VAR is system/concept reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication. The 2018 World Cup was the first tournament to use VAR at all matches and in all venues.
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