VAR must not appear ‘protecting officials who make mistakes on pitch’ – Pierluigi Collina

Video Assistant Referees (VAR) must not show the “wrong idea of solidarity” by appearing to protect officials who make mistakes on the pitch, the head of FIFA’s Referees’ Committee has said.

Speaking at the World Football Summit, Italian Pierluigi Collina also stressed the importance of on-field referees using pitchside monitors during games to review decisions.

“Another thing to be considered (is) a sort of wrong idea of solidarity,” Collina said. “If you belong to a team, you always try to protect your team mates. If your team mate made a mistake you try to find everything to say ‘no, no, no, he was correct’.

“It’s a sort of friendship I’d say. Referees must understand the solidarity and friendship that they want to show is to tell their colleague ‘be careful, you might have made a mistake’.

“‘It’s better that you have another chance watching the incident on a monitor, you have assessed probably wrongly,’ so that finally you can avoid a mistake.”

Former World Cup referee Collina, 60, said wrong decisions taken in important games can “really kill a referee’s career.”

“VAR is a very important safety net,” he added.

Reuters