Norway FA defends VAR after clubs vote to scrap

The president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) launched an impassioned defence of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) on Wednesday after clubs voted to scrap it last week.

Lise Klaveness said the NFF would like to retain video officials but admitted the processes need improving after considerable fan protests that saw fishcakes flung onto the pitch in July last year.

“Despite strong arguments in favour of abolishing VAR, in particular opposition from the elite clubs, the governing body unanimously concluded that the best thing for Norwegian football is to maintain and develop it,” Klaveness said.

The president added to her case by citing the number of decisions that had been corrected by VAR since its introduction.

A final vote on whether to keep VAR in Norway’s top-two tiers is set to take place at the NFF’s congress in early March. The congress is made up of the professional men’s clubs (19 out of 32 voted in favour of axing VAR), profesionnal women’s teams and amateur teams, as well as district representatives.