There will be replays in UCL play-offs

There will be replays in UCL play-offs

The UEFA will introduce video replays at this season’s Champions League play-off stage. According to the British newspaper The Times, the organization will not wait for a new season to use the innovation in the most prestigious club tournament in Europe.

At a meeting of the organizing committee on third of December, UEFA will try to make a decision on the early introduction of the video assistant referee already in February of the current season in the Champions League. A similar situation is with the final tournament of the Nations League, which will be held in Portugal in June 2019, there will also be VAR.

Despite the hype about video replays in the Champions League, this will in no way affect the Europa League. There innovations will take effect from next season there. However, there is a possibility that VAR will be present at the final match of the tournament, which will be held in the capital of Azerbaijan - Baku.

The UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin himself met with the president of Juventus in Turin and the head of the Association of European Clubs Andrea Agnelli. Then the functionary stated,

“We have begun all the necessary preparation. The head of the UEFA Referees’ Committee Roberto Rosetti work well. There are important moments, such as referees work and technical aspects.

I expect an answer in the nearest week or something like that. And then we will see, whether we can introduce VAR in the next season at latest.”

According to these words, we can conclude that there will be video replays in the Champions League. Disputes about its necessity are meaningless, as the successful testing of the system at the World Cup in Russia answered the questions of critics. It would be logical to follow the example of the UEFA and the English Premier League, which finally decided to introduce VAR from the next season.

Let us remind you that in the current draw of the Champions League there already were controversial moments, such as, for example, with the simulation of Raheem Sterling in the match against Shakhtar Donetsk with refereeing Viktor Kassai.