Ex-Fifa official issues emphatic claim as EFL confirm radical new Sunderland plan
Sunderland and the rest of the Championship will play their matches with VAR in the near future, according to Keith Hackett.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee claimed Rick Parry should insist on a specialist panel of VAR specialists if the EFL introduce the technology.
Sunderland’s 2-0 victory over Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final last week (21 May) was the first EFL game to use the technology.
EFL chairman Parry told the Times last week (25 May) VAR could be introduced by the beginning of the 2023-24 season if the clubs agree to it.
“I think it will come for sure,” Hackett told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“If I was Mr Parry I would insist on a panel of VAR specialists. We’ll see it in the World Cup, they’ve taken specialist VAR operators.
“They will be put into workshops, worked like hell before they hit the World Cup. We have to do the same.
“We have to have a specialist panel of VAR operators who work the Premier League and the Championship.
“The PGMOL can take the praise for having two referees going to the World Cup but there are no VAR operators. It’s pretty obvious why, they are not good enough.
“We used to have assistant referees who refereed. I was one of them. We had discussions with the FA and decided the assistant role was a specialist role that required specialist training on a regular basis.
“Coming from refereeing a game to going into VAR is not the way it should be done.”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has revealed Sunderland are braced for a financial blow as a ‘£119million-a-year’ deal is on the line.