Celtic fans may be interested to hear about a plan for greater VAR transparency being thought up by key football decision makers.
According to reports, referees will be allowed to communicate VAR decisions to supporters via microphones inside stadiums at next month’s FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.
Sky’s Rob Harris and The Times’ Martyn Ziegler have both tweeted this breaking news, with the latter providing interesting detail.
Ziegler says that the FIFA Club World Cup, which starts on February 1, will see referees announce the reason for VAR decisions to fans watching on television and in stadiums.
If the IFAB backed trial goes well, it would likely be rolled out into other competitions closer to home.
Even more promisingly for Celtic fans, Ziegler also says that “new FIFA guidelines will tell competitions to follow the World Cup approach to added on time.”
This means that we could soon see increased stoppage time like we did during the tournament in Qatar.
A fortnight ago, Opta Analyst released “ball in play” figures for Europe’s top leagues. They saw the Scottish Premiership languishing at the bottom with an average of less than 51 minutes of the ball being in play per match.
That was in comparison to over 58 minutes per match at the recent World Cup.
Ange Postecoglou is big on keeping the ball in play.
In an interview last year, his former Socceroos player Ryan McGowan told us: “Most football games, the ball is only in play for between 50 and 65 minutes.
“He (Ange) would always look at that after games. If it was under 60 he would be absolutely raging at everyone.”
So we know Ange wants the ball to be in play as much as possible. That’s why Celtic endeavour to take quick corners, goal-kicks and throw-ins.
These updates concerning FIFA and IFAB are likely to be music to Ange’s ears, with more stoppage time punishing timewasting.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou reckons it could be at least a week before Tomoki Iwata is in contention for a Celtic appearance
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