Council for Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) is set to roll out Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at its remaining tournaments for the 2024 season.
This comes after Cosafa acquired the equipment with support from Confederation of African Football (Caf).
“VAR is a technology-aided officiating system intended to assist on-field referees to make accurate decisions during crucial junctures of a football match. The VAR team monitors the game remotely on multiple screens and has real-time access to video footage of the match through multiple camera angles,” olympics.com reports.
Cosafa announced on its official website on Monday that after a successful pilot project last year at the Cosafa Women’s Championship, the aim is to have VAR at all Cosafa events in future.
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“Cosafa is now in possession of the equipment and will have it in play in the later stages of the men’s senior Cosafa Cup that is set for June. But the system will also be used to train referees, which is becoming vital with Caf and Fifa requiring licenced VAR operators at their events,” a statement on the Cosafa website reads.
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Cosafa is expected to host eight more tournaments this year after hosting the Beach Soccer Championship in Durban, South Africa, last month.
Cosafa Executive Director Sue Destombes said the plan is to roll out the use of VAR at the men’s senior tournament in June.
“The next step is for a training workshop for operators in the first week of June. A Caf VAR specialist will be coming to South Africa for the training workshop,” Destombes said.
On his part, Cosafa Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima said after acquiring the equipment, the focus will turn to training people to operate VAR in the region.
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“The equipment has come at the right time for the benefit of our referees and our associations. In all Caf tournaments, they are using VAR; so, referees that do not operate VAR are left behind,” he said.
Football Association of Malawi General Secretary Alfred Gunda welcomed the use of VAR at Cosafa tournaments.
“We are aware of the development and we, as a region, stand to benefit from its availability,” Gunda said.
Malawi national football teams are expected to take part in all Cosafa competitions this year.
The Flames will be looking to win their first ever Cosafa Cup tournament when they take part in June this year.
Thereafter, Cosafa will hold the Caf Champions League, Cosafa Qualifier in August before hosting Under-20 boys tournament in September.
Cosafa will also hold Women’s Championship in October after the African Schools Championship.
