The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology may not be implemented in the Ghana Premier League at least for the next two football seasons ahead of us according to the Ghana Football Association communication director Henry Asante Twum.
The video assistant referee, is an assistant referee in association football who intervenes in decisions made by the referee and requests for an on field review with the use of video footage and headset for communication.
In September 2022 , the Ghana Football Association’s referees manager, Alex Kotey confirmed that VAR will be introduced in the 2023/24 Ghana Premier League.
He disclosed that the GFA is working hard for the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee for the first in the local league.
However , according to Henry Asante who spoke on Kumasi-based FOX FM on Thursday , there will be no usage of tHE VAR for the upcoming league season.
“There will be no VAR in the Ghana Premier League for this season because we cannot afford the cost. Even next season may come too early for us to start using the VAR here” , Henry Asante revealed as monitored by Ghanasportspage.com.
“Even Egypt hires the VAR technology from Morocco and after using it , the Moroccans will come for it. So the cost to implement it is not easy. As we speak Morocco FA is fully implementing the VAR and I think South Africa. Even for South Africa is is for some selected matches. So the cost of using the VAR is very , very high”
“FIFA has given us (GFA) options to consider and luckily we also have an MOU with the Saudi Arabia Football Association. Improvement in the area of refereeing is one of the agreement we have with them and so the referees body of the GFA and that of the Saudi Arabia FA have held a number of meetings to that effect.
They are willing to assist us and help us with the implementation of the VAR technology in terms of giving us technical experts to train our referees and also help us to install it” , the GFA spokesman added.
