So, what’s the deal with VAR coming to South African football?
Sometime last season, IOL Sport reported that plans to bring VAR to the Betway Premiership were afoot, according to South African referees’ boss Abdul Ebrahim.
Ebrahim said 2024/25 — this season — would usher in a new era in officiating and that the technology would be introduced.
As things currently stand, VAR is not here. All that’s happened so far are talks between the South African Football Association and the Premier Soccer League. So far it’s been all talk and no action.
As recent as May, SAFA national referees committee chairperson Victor Gomes said, according to The Sowetan, South Africa wasn’t yet ready to implement it now, as officials were not trained on how to use it, and neither were the broadcasters.
And then there’s the costs. According to Ebrahim, who was quoted in a Sunday Times report, It would cost around R1.2 million and R1.5 million to train 16 to 20 officials. On top of that, there’s the cost-per-season to use the technology.
Morocco and Egypt are reportedly paying up to R23 million a season for VAR.
Fortunately, South African already has skilled FIFA-trained VAR instructors in Gomes and Jerome Damon, according to Ebrahim.
"They've been through courses with CAF, they've even conducted VAR courses themselves — Jerome Damon just recently finished the VAR course at the COSAFA Cup,“ he was quoted last month by SABC Sport.
"So we have the personnel, all we have to do is bring in, maybe, one or two people from FIFA or CAF to oversee the process, and as soon as the meetings are done and the recommendations are made then I believe we are ready for the next step."
How long this “next step” takes remains to be seen.
During last season, calls for the introduction of VAR into South African football grew louder after every high-profile refereeing mistake.
The likes of Rulani Mokwena, Pablo Franco, and Ernst Middendorp made their thoughts known after a number of calls did not go their way.
Naturally, pundits and fans have also jumped on the bandwagon and have been calling for VAR to be introduced to the Betway Premiership.
But South Africa is a movie. When some clubs benefit from poor decisions, everyone puts on their tin-foil hats and starts speaking about conspiracies and allegations about match-fixing.
A certain German head coach had a running feud with Golden Arrows and Mato Madlala during his time in charge of Maritzburg United in the 2015/16 season.
He alleged that Arrows chairperson Madlala, who had just begun her job as the PSL’s acting CEO, had somehow influenced the referees after a heated game between the two clubs.
It’s no secret that refereeing standards in the country need to improve. But will VAR actually improve anything? We’ve seen how much turmoil has been created by the technology in England’s Premier League.
But on the other side of the coin, we’ve seen how well it’s worked at international competitions like the Fifa World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.
If VAR is done right, it can work well. But this is South Africa – how often do we do things right? Will we be able to accept it if the system is offline?
IOL Sport