PSSI Wants The Quality Of Indonesian Referees To Improve Along With The Implementation Of VAR

JAKARTA Chairman of the All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) Erick Thohir wants the quality of Indonesian referees to be better along with the implementation of video assistant referee (VAR).

The VAR application training was carried out on Friday, July 7, 2023 at the Shaliva Hotel, Jakarta. However, VAR is planned to only be used in the second round of the Indonesian League 1 next year.

"We want to make sure the referees are ready, have the ability, and also have confidence. Therefore, apart from the training, I also gave a forward view that the referee must be better," said Erick, as reported by Antara.

The quality of Indonesian referees is still considered far from good. In the FIFA selection some time ago, there were only 18 referees who were deemed worthy of leading the competition from 161 who participated in the selection.

This reality is clearly a blow because the referee is the key to the smooth running of the match. Therefore, if there is no increase in the referee, then of course the match will not be maximized.

Erick explained that PSSI has collaborated with Japan to improve and improve the quality of referees in Indonesia.

"We will study appeals with Japan later, there is a regulatory structure that we have to improve thoroughly and the cost is not cheap. Never at PSSI has such a large budget for supervision," he said.

On this occasion, he also thanked the league (Indonesia) for encouraging the acceleration of the implementation of VAR so that it became an extraordinary breakthrough.

Erick also asked for government support so that VAR could be applied thoroughly at the stadiums used for the BRI Liga 1 match.

"I hope the government can help renovate 16 stadiums that can be used for BRI Liga 1 and there is already a VAR system later. If GBK, I Wayan Dipta, and Manahan stadiums already have them. However, others must be maximized," he said.