Football’s lawmakers are exploring the possibility of allowing tournaments to run their own trials of new rules, which could lead to VAR being used to adjudicate on corner kicks at next summer’s World Cup.
Under the change the International Football Association Board (Ifab) would allow more short-term trials as an alternative to the system whereby major tournaments largely introduce measures only after they have been trialled, usually in minor leagues or tournaments.
If taken up, next summer’s 48-team World Cup could be the first to try the use of VAR to adjudicate on corners, with the technology used to assess whether the ball had fully crossed the line or which team had last touched the ball. There is appetite for the trial within the corridors of power, where it has been framed as introducing a safety net against the possibility of an incorrectly awarded set-piece influencing the outcome of an important match, such as the World Cup final.
Ifab has internally been discussing the prospect of extending the reach of VAR this year, with a growing appetite for the video refereeing system to be allowed to determine on fact-based decisions such as whether a ball was out of play before a corner was awarded.
At the same time, there is concern at the risk of adding extra delays to the game. Allowing VAR to determine on inaccurately awarded second yellow cards has also been discussed, though this move has also proven challenging owing to its often subjective nature.
Any trial would not require the protocols that define VAR to be rewritten and would not be carried over into other competitions, such as the Premier League.
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Any changes to the rules that would allow bespoke trials would need to be approved at Ifab’s annual general meeting in March. Fifa has shown an enthusiasm for introducing new technological approaches into tournaments, with semi-automated offside technology used at the World Cup in Qatar and bodycams on referees introduced officially at the Club World Cup last summer.
