UEFA will next month take the next stage towards implementing Video Assistant Referees (VAR) into all levels of their women’s club competitions by paying to install it at three stadiums.
The regulations of the UEFA Women’s Champions League have for the past two years stipulated that VAR be used in all knockout matches of the competition from the quarter-finals onwards.
In the previous two seasons, all of the teams reaching the last eight came from the same five countries – England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Although VAR is not used in any European women’s league, the teams involved circumvented the issue by moving their matches to their main club stadiums where the system was already in place for men’s domestic matches due to the mandatory use of VAR for all club games.
This season however, there is more variety in the quarter-final line-up, with teams from seven countries. One of them, BK Häcken play in Sweden, the only leading European nation where VAR is not used in the domestic men’s league and therefore not installed at the majority of league grounds.
A spokesperson for the club, who play Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals, told me, “BK Häcken don’t have VAR in place at Bravida Stadium since we still don’t use it in the Swedish league system. It will be installed for the women’s Champions League quarter-finals, just like we did last summer when our men’s team qualified for UEFA Champions League.”
In Norway, the use of VAR is only compulsory in the men’s top division, the Eliteserien. With their main Brann Stadium currently having its pitch re-laid, SK Brann have had to move their quarter-final against holders FC Barcelona to the city’s smaller Åsane Arena, home of a second tier men’s club. As with BK Häcken, VAR will be installed there specifically for the women’s Champions League match.
FC Barcelona themselves are having to install VAR at their women’s club stadium, the Estadi Johan Cruyff for the return leg against SK Brann. In the past two seasons, they have moved all four of their Champions League knockout matches to Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, twice attracting world record attendances.
However, with Camp Nou currently being renovated and not expecting such a large crowd for the visit of SK Brann, they have decided not to incur the cost of playing at Estadi Montjuïc – the temporary home of the men’s team – and will have VAR installed at Estadi Johan Cruyff, the permanent home of the women’s team.
The cost of the Video Assistant Referee system has been estimated to be in the region of $125,000 per season by the Scottish Football Association in 2022. In a statement over the installing of the system for the women’s Champions League, the European governing body told me, “UEFA cover all the technology costs like VAR operations (including referees, technical staff, equipment, etc.) or EPTS (player tracking) installations. The costs are allocated to the competition, but they don’t directly impact the money prize of the clubs.”
For the moment, VAR is not used in the group stages of the women’s Champions League, even where clubs have the facility to use it. This contrasts with the men’s competition where the use of VAR is mandatory throughout the group stages and, from this season, even during the qualifying phase.
Earlier in the season, there was controversy during the group stage when Real Madrid were awarded a late penalty kick against Chelsea for an offence which clearly took place outside the 18-yard area. It was a clear example of an incorrect decision which would have been overturned by a video assistant referee.
In a statement made to Sky Sports after that incident, UEFA explained that “the implementation of VAR in European competitions involves significant technical, operational, and logistical challenges. To address these challenges, UEFA has developed a gradual plan to introduce VAR in the majority of matches, starting with men’s and women’s club and national team competitions.”
“UEFA already plans to implement VAR at the Uefa Women’s Nations League finals next year and will continuously evaluate the possibility to implement VAR in competitions or stages of competitions where it hasn’t been so far.”