March 2 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has appealed to football’s lawmakers not to give the green light to video assistant referees being allowed at the World Cup in Russia this summer.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is expected to change the laws of the game on Saturday to allow VARs to be used throughout the professional game.
FIFA has four votes and the four British associations one each, with six needed for any new rule to come into effect. Gianni Infantino, Blatter’s successor, is driving the move for VARs despite a string of inconsistencies during the experimental phase.
Blatter, still serving a ban from football for the infamous “gentleman’s agreement” with Michel Platini in 2011, supported the use of goal-line technology at the 2014 World Cup but only after changing his mind. He remains cautious about technology being used for anything else.
The 81-year-old took to Twitter to voice his concerns, stating the World Cup “cannot be used as [an] experiment for such a fundamental change”.
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