The Costa Rican soccer league, Liga Promerica (Promerica League) is set to become the first in Central America to implement Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. VAR is designed to assist the main referee in avoiding serious and obvious mistakes during the match. The VAR team monitors the game remotely on multiple screens and has real-time access to video footage of the match through multiple camera angles.
“Today, the Union of First Division Soccer Clubs (UNAFUT) is proud to announce that as of date 9 of the current tournament (Apertura 24), video refereeing (VAR) will become a reality in UNAFUT’s Liga Promerica, making Costa Rica the first country in UNCAF to implement this advanced technology,” UNAFUT stated.
In the CONCACAF region, only the United States and Mexico had previously implemented VAR, underscoring the significance of this achievement for Costa Rican soccer.
For Horacio Elizondo, president of the FCRF Refereeing Commission, a great effort was made to have VAR in Liga Promerica UNAFUT matches.
“It has been an intense road to get to this point, especially for certified referees and first division teams. A great effort was made to have it ready in just 8 months, a process that often takes years. We are proud to become the first country in Central America to have VAR already implemented in our soccer,” said Elizondo.
The president of UNAFUT, Dr. Vicki Ross, highlighted the qualitative leap that the competition will take.
“We highlight the importance of the implementation of VAR. It is a joint effort with the Costa Rican Football Federation, clubs affiliated with UNAFUT, television stations with rights, and sponsors, which allowed Costa Rica to become the third country in CONCACAF to have VAR, achieving a qualitative leap in the performance of the competition,” said Ross.
VAR can only intervene in four specific situations where a clear and obvious error or serious missed incident could have occurred. These include goals/no goals, possible penalties, direct red cards, or cases in which the referee has sent off the wrong player.
The concept of VAR was first introduced in 2010 by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) as part of its Refereeing 2.0 project.
