Brighton vs Crystal Palace to be 1st in England to use VAR

  • Brighton vs Crystal Palace will be first competitive game in England to use VAR
  • The FA announced its intentions to use VAR in the FA Cup back in March this year
  • The VAR trials will take place over FA Cup third round ties between January 5-8
  • It will only be used in televised games that are played at Premier League grounds
  • But Liverpool vs Everton derby was ‘deemed too high-profile’ to use the system
  • READ: Manchester United’s 12-year run of 58 televised FA Cup games has ended

Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace will reportedly play the first competitive match in England in which video replays will be used to overturn refereeing decisions.

According to The Telegraph their third-round FA Cup clash has been selected to stage a live trial of Video Assistant Referees from the televised fixtures to be shown by BT Sport and the BBC between January 5-8.

The first game of those fixtures is the Merseyside derby on Friday, January 5, but The Telegraph reports suggest that game between Liverpool and Everton was overlooked to conduct the first live VAR test in English football as it was deemed too high-profile. 

Brighton’s third round FA Cup tie with Crystal Palace will be the first competitive game in England in which the Video Assistant Referee system will be used to overturn decisions

The Football Association announced its intentions to implement VAR to this season’s Emirates FA Cup from the third round onwards back in March and have followed through with their plans.

Under a protocol laid down by the International Football Association Board the only eligible match-changing incidents that can be overturned by video review are: awarding goals, penalty or no penalty, direct red cards (not second yellow cards) and cases of mistaken identity.

The VAR system came into play Rapharl Varane was sent off in England's friendly with France

The VAR system came into play Rapharl Varane was sent off in England’s friendly with France

The trials seem set to be restricted to just televised matches that are being played at Premier League grounds due to them having the necessary infrastructure to allow the technology to be properly administered. 

Only two fixtures from next month’s FA Cup ties met that criteria which were Liverpool vs Everton and Brighton vs Palace.

The FA have had confidence in VAR’s ever since their inception and confirmed they would only test the most effective VAR systems.

So it seems strange that they would choose to introduce the system but concurrently show their doubts in it by overlooking the Merseyside derby.

The system is also being used in the Bundesliga as the referee goes over to consult the VAR

The system is also being used in the Bundesliga as the referee goes over to consult the VAR

VAR has been introduced into international friendlies and came into play during for the first time in an England match during their match with France back in June that saw Raphael Varane receive a red card.

The system has also been in use since the start of this season’s Bundesliga and Serie A but has been marred by controversy.

The non-live experiments, which are ongoing, have been used to train referees and VARs with a view to them being ready for an anticipated change to the laws of the game in March and a full global rollout from the World Cup onwards. 

Manchester United also saw their 12-year run of 58 televised FA Cup matches come to an end on Thursday with their tie against Derby County surprisingly omitted from the third-round games selected for broadcast. 

Serie A also uses it and the referee can be seen referring to it during Roma's game with SPAL

Serie A also uses it and the referee can be seen referring to it during Roma’s game with SPAL



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