The Champions League will not feature VAR next season despite Manchester City’s upset in their quarter-final defeat to Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola’s side thought they had clawed back a second goal at the Etihad when Leroy Sane poked the ball home, only for the refereeing team to incorrectly rule it offside even thought it was opposition player James Milner wjo had played it into the German’s path.
That decision would have been overturned had video assistant referees been used, and they will be in place for the World Cup this summer.
However, it is not wholly popular across football with the decision to call the Mainz and Freiburg players back from the dressing room after a penalty was spotted at half-time the latest high-profile controversy.
The Premier League have decided not to introduce it next season even though City were happy with the idea, and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is not ready to introduce VAR into the Champions League until at least the 2019/20 season.
While he admits that it would have made a difference in the City-Liverpool game, he is not convinced the same could be said for the Real Madrid penalty against Juventus that led to Gianluigi Buffon’s red card for dissent, and believes more testing is required.
“It’s early for VAR,” said Ceferin . “One day, we’ll have it in the Champions League, but there is no hurry.
“The Champions League is like a Ferrari or a Porsche: you can’t drive it straight away, you need training, offline testing. Everyone has to understand how it works.”
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