Domestic football: VAR to be used in Santosh Trophy knockout matches in Riyadh

<br>VAR will be used for the knockout matches of the 76th National Football Championships for the Santosh Trophy being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The first semi-final between Punjab and Services later on Wednesday will be the first domestic match that will have VAR facilities available for the referee. <br> <br>VAR is currently not in use in the country’s top two-tier professional leagues — the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League. It has been used in India during the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in 2022 from the start and from the quarterfinals onwards in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.<br> <br>"VAR will be used for the first time in Santosh Trophy for the first time. As we are using 10-12 cameras to broadcast the match, we also thought of using VAR," informed All-India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Choubey.<br> <br>In an informal interaction with the visiting Indian media, the AIFF president said that they have plans to utilise VAR in other domestic tournaments, but the cost is a huge factor.<br> <br>"We have lots of talented people in IT (Information Technology), so we want to use their expertise and set up a cost-effective system to use VAR for domestic competitions," said Kalyan Choubey, who took over as AIFF president after elections were held last year.<br> <br>The VAR is a video match official who will review incidents like a goal (whether the ball has crossed the goalline or not), awarding of a penalty, offsides and fouls. As per the current approval of FIFA, if the VAR feels there is a clear error made by the on-field match referee, he/she can recommend an on-field review. However, the final decision still rests with the match referee.<br> <br>The former India goalkeeper said his aim as AIFF president is to use technology to help develop Indian football.<br> <br>He said the matches in Riyadh — two semifinals, the third-place match and the final — will be telecast on DD Sports, AIFF’s Youtube channel and FANCode App.<br> <br>–IANS<br>bsk/cs