Rummenigge backs use of VAR in future football games

Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Tuesday fullly backed the video assistant referee (VAR) system in future football games, including the World Cup and European Champions League.

Bayern Munich's lamentable loss to Real Madrid in April obviously still rankling, Rummenigge said the referee's ruling errors in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final tie left him upset, reports Xinhua news agency.

Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai made a number of debatable decisions, including sending-off Arturo Vidal for a second yellow card in the 84th minute and then awarding two Cristiano Ronaldo goals that were subsequently shown to be offside.

"Of course we can lose to Real Madrid because that is a great team. But when you lose because of that big mistakes done by the referee, we had to be very upset," he said.

"I believe for the future football, we have to use video referee as it is a technical tool good for football, especially very helpful for the referees. I am totally in favour of video referee," he said.

According to the former Bayern Munich superstar, it is highly possible that VAR will be used at next year's World Cup tournaments instead of the Champions League for the upcoming season.

"At the World Cup they probably will use it, but for the Champions League, I believe we have to convince the president of UEFA that it is good for the game and helpful for the referees. Hopefully at the season after next it will be used in the Champions League," he said.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said VAR will be used at the 2018 World Cup, hailed its testing as a "great success" at the Confederations Cup.

"The video refs had the chance to intervene and there were six game-changing decisions, where they actually corrected the decision or mistake, made by the ref," he said in a statement.

"Without the VAR, we would have had a different tournament and it would have been a little less fair. Thanks to VAR we have achieved a great thing -- those big mistakes will not happen any longer," he said.

--IANS

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