In Norway, the majority of professional clubs had spoken out in favor of abolishing the VAR. Now the association is speaking out – and disagrees.
The VAR was introduced in the Norwegian first division in 2023, but recently 19 professional clubs spoke out in favor of abolishing the video referee, with only 13 clubs voting against. Now the national football association
Instead of abolishing it, the association’s leadership is unanimously in favor of maintaining and further developing the VAR, thus going directly against the majority vote. This was announced by association head Lise Klaveness after a comprehensive consideration of the various positions in the debate.
Showdown in March
“You can’t unwind a project at this point in time in which so many people have invested their resources and that has only been running for two seasons,” explained Klaveness. She also stated that the video assistant has become an important part of European club and national team football. We are in a situation in which the majority of professional clubs are against a majority of all the others who play a role in football, said the association’s head.
Since its introduction in 2023, the video referee has been the subject of fierce debate, with fan groups in particular regularly taking the VAR to task. A final decision on the future of the video assistant is to be made at a national football congress on March 1 and 2.