MOSCOW: FIFA said video assistant referee (VAR) crews conducted checks on 335 incidents during the World Cup group stage, helping achieve a 99.3 percent rate of correct decisions.

The VAR system is being used at a World Cup for the first time in Russia.

“335 incidents were checked by the VAR team. All the goals scored (122) were checked by the VAR, and in addition many other incidents occurring on the field,” Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, said on Friday.

With 48 matches in the group stage, the figure averages out to almost seven incidents per game in Russia.

“Within these 335 checks, we had 17 VAR reviews,” said Collina. “We had 14 decisions changed by the intervention of the VAR. We had 14 on-field reviews, with the referee going to the monitor on the side of the pitch, while there were three decisions taken only by the VAR on direct review.”

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018