According to the Ghana Football Association (GFA), FIFA has promised to provide a less expensive version of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). The GFA is waiting for this promise to be kept.
Prosper Harrison Addo, general secretary of the GFA, claimed that the current VAR system, which has been endorsed by the international football regulatory body, is pricey.
He mentioned that Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, promised to offer a less expensive version of VAR so that nations like Ghana may use the technology in matches.
“It is not true that FIFA has written to us about VAR. We were on a project to do VAR, but the VAR that is approved by FIFA is very expensive,” Addo told Accra-based Angel FM.
“It is not just about bringing the machine, but you will train people, train referees, and the setup is heavy and expensive. So, at the last congress in Rwanda, the FIFA President himself said that FIFA is going to develop another version that will be less expensive.
“We are on that project with FIFA, and they haven’t written to us that we should do live matches at all centers.”
This comes after the GFA’s manager of referees suggested that Ghanaian football could adopt VAR in the 2023–24 season.
In September of last year, Alex Kotey said that the VAR system’s implementation had been delayed because of budget issues and FIFA’s adoption of a different technology for African nations.
He pointed out that, since FIFA had given the VAR project the go-ahead, Ghana was the only country from WAFU Zone B to have done so.
“For me, I’m saying that, give and take, by 2023 we should see VAR in Ghana,” Alex Kotey said in an interview with Joy Sports.
During the first leg of Ghana’s 2022 FIFA World Cup playoff match against Nigeria in Kumasi, VAR was used for the first time in the country.
Despite the GFA’s claim that VAR will soon be deployed in the domestic league, the Ghana Premier League and other competitions have yet to experience the technology.
