Opinion: Introduction of VAR is an important step forward for Egyptian football

Recently, questionable refereeing decisions in the Egyptian Premier League have dominated every single post-match studio analysis, with fans and club officials questioning if the officials have the required skills to do their jobs.

Normalization committee member, Mohamed Fadl, has announced that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Technology will be put in place starting from the second round, but insists that this is no reaction to the recent controversy in the media, but a plan made before the season even started.

While speaking to Seif Zaher on Egyptian TV channel ON Sport, Fadl explained that the Egyptian FA already went through all the processes linked to the procurement of the technology from one of the FIFA approved providers and that they were solely awaiting them to pass customs. They have been acquired via the rent-to-own method for a three-and-a-half-year period, meaning that they will be leasing the equipment and once the rent ends, they will own the latest version of it.

Once the equipment passes customs, the referees will spend around 40 days being trained on how to use these new methods, and we should expect to see them as soon as the second round starts, around the beginning of March.

VAR was created in order to support match officials during games in order to reduce the number of refereeing mistakes that decide games. A fifth official gets to take a look at decisions in a more extensive manner, with the support of all the camera angles available, and advise the match official, on whether to overturn the decision or stick to it, and if need be, a screen is available for him to check for himself.

Upon first thought, this seems to be a positive step for Egyptian Football, the incorporation of VAR in Egypt makes it the second African country to do so, after Morocco. Everybody will eventually need to incorporate VAR, which is why it’s a step that was better taken sooner rather than later, hopefully the Egyptian FA will be able to learn from the mistakes that the Big Leagues have encountered and avoid it. Doing so might help to incorporate a VAR that does what it is intended to do without slowing down and interrupting the flow of the game.

The questionable decisions in the league’s games should massively decrease as a result, since everything is reviewed, which in turn should decrease the amount of pressure on the referee’s backs, which should hopefully increase their level.

If Egypt find themselves able to incorporate a good VAR methodology into its league, it might be the beginning of the appearance of VAR more generally throughout Africa, which can only increase the effectiveness of the technology.

Unfortunately, refereeing decisions are not as clear as one might think. The recent integration of VAR in Europe’s top leagues has sparked outrage amongst fans, coaches and pundits equally: with many being convinced that it has killed the way football works. Unfortunately, this seems to be due to the inconsistencies and inefficiency of the way the technology works, rather than its purpose. Although the negatives seem to be spoken of a lot more than the positives, whenever VAR is effective in its decision making, without the excessive time wasted from doing so, it’s clear why this technology is sought after.

In order to avoid the problems surrounding the interpretation of rules, I believe that the CAF should look to impose a fixed set of rules and laws, in order to uniformize the laws of the games, which will therefore eliminate the different interpretations which seem to have been at the centre of the biggest frustrations surrounding VAR in Europe and World Competitions.

Overall, this is a step forward nevertheless for Egyptian football, but how it will be incorporated is just as important as incorporating it. This is a space to keep an eye on in the upcoming future, but we are all hoping for the best.

What are your thoughts on the introduction of VAR in the Egyptian Premier League? Start a discussion in the comments.