The Arbitration Council (CA) of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) today informed the referees and assistants of the category C1 that some audio communications with the Video Referee (VAR) will be made public from the 2023/24 season.
In a statement, the CA explains that the disclosure of some communications “has a pedagogical purpose, consistent with what it has always considered to be appropriate practice”.
“As happened in the first season of the introduction of VAR in Portugal, the Board of Arbitration believes that the dissemination of audio helps to fully understand the function of referees”the organization says in a statement, adding: “Furthermore, the same happens with the publication of arbitration reports”.
CA thinks so “in 2017, probably because everything is new, the impact of releasing the audio was not what we wanted, as it would have even contributed to increasing the noise around the tool, without any benefit to the game”.
However, seven years after the introduction of VAR in football leagues, CA “understands that there is enough knowledge and maturity among football agents and fans to make this disclosure something normal and useful”.
“So in the season now starting, once a month CA will publish the audio of the conversations between field umpires and VAR in all rated bids on the screen available on the field”reads the statement.
CA guarantees that “will assess the impact of this decision over the course of the season and will retain it if it understands that the benefits to football and to understanding the work of arbitration agents are unequivocal”.
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Source: DN
