UEFA confirmed that Video Assistant Referees will be used in the Champions League in the 2018-19 season. Here’s the note published in UEFA.com.
Video Assistant Referees (VAR) will be used for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League, as well as for a number of other UEFA competitions.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee at the House of European Football in Nyon on Thursday morning.
VAR will be introduced from the play-off stage of next season’s UEFA Champions League. It will be used additionally for the 2019 UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul, as well as for UEFA EURO 2020.
UEFA subsequently plans to introduce it in the UEFA Europa League from the group stage of the 2020/21 edition, with the system also set to be in place for the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said: “We are confident that introducing Video Assistant Referees in August 2019 will give us enough time to put in place a robust system and to train match officials to ensure an efficient and successful implementation of VAR in the UEFA Champions League, the world’s flagship club competition.”
Source: UEFA.com
Therefore, the VAR system will be in effect in every competition Real Madrid play next season, given that La Liga and the Copa del Rey already implemented it this year. This is good news for the sport, even though it’s clear that fans, referees, players and coaches alike still need to get used to the whole system, which also probably needs a few adjustments to make it even better.