Extending VAR’s reach, potentially to cover second yellow cards, could be discussed at a meeting of football’s lawmakers on Tuesday.
Olympiacos player Santiago Hezze was controversially dismissed against Barcelona in the Champions League last week when he was shown a second yellow for what was deemed a foul on Marc Casado.
Replays showed minimal contact between Hezze’s arm and Casado’s face as the pair challenged for the ball, but the Barca player’s reaction convinced Swiss referee Urs Schnyder to issue a second yellow.
Under the current protocol, the VAR could not send Schnyder to review the decision. However, that could change in the future.
The football and technical panels of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which sets the laws of the game, will meet next Tuesday.
The panels, which include former players, are free to raise topics they wish to discuss, which could include a debate around the effectiveness of the existing VAR protocol and whether it should be extended.
That could be the first step to decisions being taken at a later date by the IFAB directors – the chief executives of the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh football associations and Mattias Grafstrom, the secretary general of FIFA.
The PA news agency understands there have been debates around the inclusion of second yellow cards since ‘day one’ of VAR’s introduction, but there have been – and remain – concerns around whether extending the protocol may change referee behaviour in awarding first or second yellow cards.
Time-wasting rules could extend to throw-ins
The panels are also set to discuss whether fresh measures to tackle time-wasting should be looked at.
The introduction of the eight-second rule for goal kicks out of hand has generally been deemed a success, and consideration is set to be given by the panel to whether time limits could be brought in for throw-ins and dead-ball goal kicks.
Trials may then be approved as early as the IFAB’s annual business meeting in January.
The offside law is also on the agenda for Tuesday. Panellists are set to be updated on trials of the ‘daylight’ offside law – where an attacker is onside if any part of his body that can score is level with the second-last defender.
The trials, backed by FIFA chief of global football development Arsene Wenger, were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic but have now taken place in youth competitions in countries such as China and Canada.
Panellists will be asked to take a step back and have a discussion on what the issues are around the offside law that football would want any law change to solve – would the change aim to cut out ‘marginal’ offsides, or to promote attacking play, for instance.
There is acceptance that care must be taken not to change the law purely for the benefit of top-level football, where VAR is in use, and that it must be applicable and understandable all the way down to grassroots.
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