Spain's Liga F to be first league to introduce ‘cost-effective' alternative to VAR
Spain's Liga F is set to be the first senior professional league to introduce Football Video Support (FVS), a 'cost-effective' alternative to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has announced plans to implement FVS — which will allow managers to challenge two on-field decisions per game — into the top flight of Spanish women's football for the 2025-26 season.
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The RFEF says the decision to introduce FVS is the first step towards the full implementation of VAR in Liga F.
The federation will 'seek FIFA's permission and guidance' to bring in the technology with a view to 'aligning the top men's and women's leagues with an equivalent VAR system in the medium term.'
The decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting on Spanish refereeing reform in the women's game, with referee, club and player representatives agreeing to the introduction of FVS.
FVS is billed as a 'cost-effective alternative to VAR' and was trialled at the Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup in May and the Women's Under-20 World Cup in September. The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body responsible for the game's laws, announced in December that FVS trials were being extended.
Similarly to VAR, the FVS system is designed to be used 'in the event of a possible clear and obvious error or serious missed incident' — a goal/no goal, straight red card, penalty/no penalty or case of mistaken identity, according to a FIFA press release from May. However, unlike VAR, those decisions are not automatically checked as there is no video match official, and instead the coaches make a review request to the on-field referee.
FIFA states a coach can indicate they are challenging the decision by 'twirling their finger in the air' and handing a review request card to the fourth official. Only the team's head coach can make a review request, but players are entitled to ask their head coach to do so.
FIFA said in May that FVS is its response to requests from member associations who are unable to implement VAR due to cost and number of cameras available, and it is not intended as a VAR replacement.
VAR was introduced in La Liga from the beginning of the 2018-19 season and while the technology is used across international women's competitions, the knockout stages of the Women's Champions League and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), it is not common in domestic women's leagues.
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The introduction of officiating technology in Spain comes after Real Madrid's historic win over Barcelona on Sunday was marred by a controversially disallowed goal. Barcelona's Jana Fernandez had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside with the game level at 1-1, before Madrid went on to win the game.
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