Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie has hinted that Video Assistant Referee (VAR) could be implemented for the Soweto derby match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
The two giants of South African football will meet each other on 10 May in the Nedbank Cup final. Amakhosi reached the final by edging out favourites Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 on Sunday evening. The Buccaneers, on the other hand, managed to get past Marumo Gallants 1-0 at home.
VAR is a few weeks away, according to Gayton McKenzie
Chiefs’ winning goal against Downs caused a lot of controversy, with many social media users arguing that Ashley Du Preez was offside when he scored the goal. Gayton McKenzie took to X (Twitter) to respond to football fans, saying VAR was weeks away.
“VAR is weeks away Nobala, don’t start world war 3,” the minister replied to Fikile Mbalula’s tweet.
“We concluded an extremely successful meeting with Javier Tebas. He is the chairman of LALIGA (Spanish professional football league). We agreed on assistance in training aspirant referees in VAR technology & also sharing with us best practises of school soccer program of La Liga,” McKenzie said in a tweet on Monday.
Last week, Gayton revealed that the South African Football Association (Safa) had issued a request for proposals for VAR services.
“We are committed to ensuring that VAR is introduced in line with FIFA regulations,” McKenzie said. “The money is available, and the necessary training for referees has also been budgeted for. With the collaboration of Safa and the PSL,” he said.
The minister revealed that the VAR technology was expected to cost between R70 million and R80 million as a once-off expense, with R70,000 as an addition per game. With the Soweto derby final just under a month away, it remains to be seen if Gayton will ‘implement’ VAR in what will be the biggest game of the season.
Do you think VAR will be implemented for the Nedbank Cup final?
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