The incorporation of VAR in Egypt makes it the second African country to do so, after Morocco.
Egypt’s Minister of Sports and Youth, Ashraf Sobhy, has announced that the government entity has officially approved the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for Egyptian Premier League from the second round of the league, which is scheduled around March 2020. This season of the league, which commenced in September 2019, will go on until May 2020.
During the announcement, Sobhy said the ministry has finalised a deal with a foreign company to rent the VAR technology machines for three-and-a-half years, after which it will own the technology.
Normalisation committee member Mohamed Fadl clarified that the VAR technology will be put in place starting from the second round, which begins in March.
In the past few seasons, Egyptian referees have come under scrutiny over obvious mistakes that overshadowed several games. Fadl insisted that it was not in reaction to the controversy in the media over referee decisions, but a plan made before the season started.
Once the equipment passes customs, the referees will spend around 40 days being trained on how to use the new technology.
VAR was developed in order to support match officials during games in order to reduce the number of refereeing mistakes that decide games.
