Victor Gomes & Dr Irvin Khoza - VAR implementation in the PSL imminent

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Speaking to the media at the COSAFA Awards in Johannesburg on Thursday night, Gomes, who was part of the SAFA and Premier Soccer League’s (PSL’s) Joint Liaison Committee meeting earlier this week, reveals that big steps have been made towards the VAR implementation and they will be finalising budgets in the next two weeks.

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”We had a meeting recently and I know that it’s on the way now. Now we are progressing very fast. Now we’re sitting for some budgetary cost in the next two weeks, and that’s how far we are” said Gomes

Questions have been asked about South Africa’s state of readiness for the VAR as there are only less than four match officials in the country trained on VAR.

Gomes acknowledges that a lot of work is needed to ensure implementation.

”VAR is the future of football, it will help the PSL and any other league in the world. VAR is here to stay, excellent question – no we are not ready. But it is a process, we are ready to start training. What we want to do, we don’t want to rush something and get it wrong. We want to bring it in and do it correctly, so that everyone can trust it,” added Gomes.

In a recent interview on Ukhozi FM’s Prime Time Sport show with Victor Molefe, the Chairman of the PSL, Dr. Irvin Khoza, revealed that they were ready to implement VAR about two years ago, but SAFA requested more time.

Khoza says they would’ve liked to test VAR in one of their cup finals previously, but the match officials trained on VAR were not available in the country.

”We did a VAR trial two years ago, and SAFA became honest to say they needed more time. VAR needs a large team, we wanted to implement it at some point but during that time, two VAR officials were on FIFA duty,” said Khoza.

But now Khoza sounds confident that after the meeting with SAFA, the momentum towards implementing VAR is gathering pace, and things like goal-line technology will also be discussed.

COSAFA has also been clear about implementing the VAR in its tournaments, and they are expected to roll it out more in the next COSAFA Cup men’s tournament next month. Gomes, who is also the Deputy Chairperson of the CAF Referees Committee and is influential on the continent, says the COSAFA VAR Centre will benefit them as SAFA.