Norway’s FA defends VAR despite fan and club opposition

OSLO: The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) said Wednesday it was in favour of retaining video assistant referees (VAR), defying opposition from a majority of professional clubs and many fans.

To show their discontent with video refereeing, Norwegian fans have been throwing fish cakes, tennis balls and other projectiles at pitches in recent months. “Despite strong arguments in favour of abolishing VAR, in particular opposition from the elite clubs, the governing body unanimously concluded that the best thing for Norwegian football is to maintain and develop it,” NFF President Lise Klaveness told a press conference.

The federation, whose voice is influential, will argue for this position at an upcoming congress which, among others, brings together professional and amateur clubs as well as representatives of women´s teams and district representatives.

The cornerstone of the democratic system that governs Norwegian football, the congress will decide whether or not to maintain VAR at its next meeting on March 1-2. Last week, the 32 clubs in the top two divisions of men´s football, gathered under the umbrella organisation Norsk Toppfotball (NTF), voted to abolish VAR in the country “as soon as possible.”

Interest group the Norwegian Supporters´ Alliance (NSA) is also calling for an end to the use of this technology, which has been in used in the Scandinavian country since 2023. “The NFF has made a fool of the fans. It called on people to use democratic channels within the clubs. That´s what was done, and it resulted in a large majority in favour of abolishing VAR,” Ole Kristian Sandvik, a spokesman of the alliance, told news agency NTB.

Fan protests have gotten so intense that several matches have been interrupted, including one between Rosenborg and Lillestrom last July, which was abandoned after only half an hour´s play.

Many fans say VAR kills the spectacle of the games. In July 2023, a video refereeing decision in a match led to a seven-minute pause. But Klaveness justified the NFF´s position by citing the number of errors that VAR makes possible to correct, the importance of providing referees with the best possible tools, improvements in its use observed over time and the expansion of the technology in Europe.