FUFA Executive Committee member Ronnie Kalema has revealed that the federation and other stakeholders are in discussions about introducing Video Assistant Referee system (VAR) in the Uganda Premier League.
Kalema’s revelation comes after the Fufa Disciplinary Panel made a decision to order a replay of BUL vs. SC Villa in the Stanbic Uganda Cup, something that has caused outrage in the football fraternity.
BUL had defeated Villa 1-0 at the Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru to advance to the next round, but Villa had an apparent equalizer at the very end of the game disallowed for offside.
According to the FUFA decision report, assistant referee Muyanga Khalid’s decision to overturn the goal was “extraordinarily wrong” and went beyond the realm of normal human error.
While appearing on NBS Sport this morning, Kalema said that they want to introduce VAR to limit the errors.
However, many Ugandans believe that FUFA’s discussions of VAR are far-fetched.
A one Arrico Daudi said, “A league where the champion is awarded Shs60 million as a cash prize, wants to introduce VAR, we joke a lot.”
“Sometimes we dream too much,” Patrick Mutimbwa said.
@Fiqramos10 tweeted saying, “Concentrate on enhancing the sports from grassroots. Divert that same fund to other projects within the sports sector.”
Meanwhile, the first time the Video Assistant Referee system was put on trial across Europe was in July 2016, during a friendly match pitting PSV Eindhoven and FC Eindhoven.
The VAR is a match official who reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and headset for communication in order to try and reduce human errors causing substantial influence on match results.
In Africa, Morocco was the first African country to use video technology. Egypt and Algeria are the other countries that use the technology.
Most African countries are yet to introduce the system in their local leagues because of the financial complications that are involved.