by sportswriter Wang Zijiang

HONG KONG, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Eleven years after its introduction, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology has proven highly successful but still requires improvement, said Pierluigi Collina, the Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, here Wednesday at the World Football Summit.

"It seems that football didn't exist without VAR," Collina said. "Eleven years ago, we started from zero. Now all the most important competitions around the world have this technology."

VAR debuted at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia, followed by the 2018 World Cup, and is now standard in major competitions. Collina noted its widespread acceptance, with match officials mastering its use both on the field and at monitors.

"During the last years, we have seen that today it is very well accepted," he said. "Match officials, both on the field and in front of the monitors, are now masters in using it. So we are happy, but there are some things to be improved. This is what we do every day, we try to improve and introduce something new."

One key area for refinement is the timing of assistants raising their flags. Collina emphasized the need for assistants to delay flagging to allow play to continue, enabling VAR to review incidents accurately.

"They have to delay this flag to let the play go on until something ends to be able to recheck what happened on the monitor," he said. "If they would flag immediately, they kill the action and they couldn't do anything."

Collina highlighted the psychological shift for referees accustomed to final decisions. "You have to defend your decision against everything and everybody," he said. "Changing when you are already a mature referee is not easy. Probably next generations will be better."

He also discussed Football Video Support (FVS), a cost-effective alternative to VAR, designed for competitions with limited resources. Unlike VAR, FVS has no video match officials; coaches request reviews for potential "clear and obvious errors" or serious missed incidents.

"The coaches have the final decision, but they can be recommended by their players," Collina said.

FVS has been tested in FIFA under-20 women's competitions and the matches in Spain, Italy, and the United States. "We are very confident that these tests will offer a positive result, giving the possibility that many more competition organizers and federations will implement this technology," Collina said.

Despite fewer cameras, FVS can prevent "major mistakes," he added.

Collina praised innovations at the FIFA Club World Cup, including referee body cameras, advanced semi-automated offside technology, and an eight-second rule to reduce goalkeeper time-wasting. He said body cameras provided viewers with an exceptional experience.

"The result went beyond our expectations," he said. "We didn't think that it would have worked so well."

The 65-year-old Italian, who officiated the 1999 Champions League final and the 2002 World Cup final between Brazil and Germany, called the latter his most memorable match. "Certainly 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama, Germany and Brazil, was the most memorable match for myself," he said.

Collina, who retired in 2005 after 109 international matches, expressed no regrets over past decisions.

"I didn't regret or I do not regret anything because I always tried to do my best," he said. "When you do that, you have to accept when something doesn't work. This is normal for everybody. We are human beings, and our nature is to make mistakes sometimes." ■