Spanish Football League to have VAR technology for 2019-20 season

The Spanish Liga Santander will have a system of video assisted refereeing (VAR) in operation in two years' time, it was confirmed on Wednesday.

Sanchez Arminio, the President of the Referees Technical Committee at the Spanish Football Federation, said the VAR system will start to be used in the league at the start of the 2019-2020 season.

Given that VAR is already used in some European competitions, such as the German Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A and in Portugal, while the English Premier League uses a system of goal line technology, the move should bring Spain up to date with other major leagues.

The system has had teething problems with disagreements over just when the system should be used (offsides, penalties, handball etc) and the time needed to revise images in case of doubt.

Before being put into full use the system will be tried in some games in the King's Cup knockout competition, while it could also be used in league matches during this and the coming season, although in an 'offline' mode, allowing those behind the TV screens to perfect their working methods ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.