Video assistant referee
in association football, match official that reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those reviews.
The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a match official appointed to assist the VAR in the video operation room and around the pitch. There are three AVARs (AVAR1, AVAR2, sometimes called the support video assistant referee, and AVAR3) who are assigned to different parts of the game that they are charged with reviewing and are in consistent communication with the VAR about possible situations that might warrant further review. The job of the AVAR1 is to watch the main camera and communicate some of the more obvious offenses within the game. The AVAR2 is located at the offside station and is responsible for assisting the VAR with offsides and reporting possible missed offside calls. The AVAR3 is responsible for monitoring the TV programs and assists in communication between the AVAR2 and the VAR since the AVAR2 is at the offside station.
In addition to the VAR and the AVARs there are three replay operators who help the VAR and AVARs select the cameras with the best angle.
Following extensive trialling in a number of major competitions, VAR was formally written into the Laws of the Game by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on 3 March 2018. Operating under the philosophy of "minimal interference, maximum benefit", the VAR system seeks to provide a way for "clear and obvious errors" and "serious missed incidents" to be corrected.
Procedure
There are four categories of decisions that can be reviewed.
“Video assistant referee” enters the record as in association football, match official that reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Video, assistant and referee can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28406836. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Video assistant referee” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.