Video technology was first used at the World Cup

The 2018 World Cup held in Russia will be the first World Cup to use refereeing video support technology (VAR).

VAR is expected to make matches more fair and transparent, limiting the referees' wrong decisions like Maradona's "hand of God" at the 1986 World Cup.

The main referee is the only person who has the right to pause the match to review the video situation and to communicate with the video referee, who sit in the video processing room (VOR) and monitor the match across multiple screens with multiple different rotation angles.

VAR is expected to make matches more fair and transparent.

VAR technology only supports arbitration to make decisions in the following 4 cases: situations that lead to goals, penalty penalties, direct red card draws or wrong penalties.

When a controversial situation occurs, the referee will inform the video referee via radio contact. After the exchange, the referee can accept the comments of the video referee and make the appropriate decision, or request to watch the video to directly check the controversial situation.

At that time, the referee will issue a rectangular sign to pause the match and run outside the yard to watch the video on the screen. The main referee can review the situation from the 4 best shooting angles, recorded by the 4 best cameras in the stadium. The referee can also ask the operator to change another angle, such as close-up shooting, slow-motion video, or any angle he needs.

Video technology has been used in a number of other sports such as rugby, badminton and tennis.

In football, VAR technology has been tested in a number of tournaments such as Bundesliga (Germany), Serie A (Italy), or American football league.