‘It’s in SAFA’s hands now’ - McKenzie says VAR must be introduced next season

Speaking during the press conference at the Freedom Park Heritage Site in Pretoria yesterday, where he was addressing a range of issues, McKenzie announced that, since they transferred the R20 million to SAFA, they have now confirmed they will roll out VAR. But he says, there could be no more excuses now.

On the African continent, North African countries have been leading in the implementation of VAR for at least the past four years. Now, there are even more countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with lower standards of national leagues than South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) Premier Division, that are implementing VAR, such as Tanzania. McKenzie says SA can’t be left behind and expects VAR to be implemented next season.

"But the timeline they have is next season - there are five games left. There's a FIFA break happening between those five breaks. There's a rest between the two. But when we start next year, we must start with, we shall have a commission of inquiry," said Mckenzie

READ: Government releases funds to SAFA as VAR implementation moves closer

"I'm saying that you must - quote me on this. If there's no VAR, we will talk to the sponsors of this league, we will talk to the sponsors of SAFA, and we will talk to the portfolio committee; we will talk to FIFA, and we will then investigate what this is."

"We can't be looking like we are a 10th world country. We are the leading the country in Africa. So there will be VAR, it must come so that we can see our teams, and when they win they must win on merit not on bad referring."

Initially, SAFA had planned to test the VAR during the semifinals and final of the Nedbank Cup, and they are also not short of match officials to carry it out, with more than five of their officials already trained in VAR. After having handed out the cheque, Mcknezie expects SAFA to make an announcement in the next few days.

McKenzie and his department facilitated a SAFA delegation's trip to Spain last year to see how some of the best VAR service providers were rolling out their operations during matches, including their backroom set-up. He feels there’s enough time for SAFA to begin preparations to roll out VAR next season.