BRATISLAVA: European football federation UEFA has decided that the video assistant referee system is not yet ready to be imposed on its flagship Champions League competition writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

UEFA’s opinion, announced to congress in Bratislava by president Aleksander Ceferin, was not a surprise because of both the cost of implementation and the distracted headlines which experimentation has drawn this season in Germany, Italy and England.

World federation FIFA remains confident that lawmakers, meeting in Switzerland later this week, will permit an experimental use of VAR in the World Cup in Russia in June and July.

However UEFA and Ceferin are not in a rush to judgment.

Ceferin said: : “Fans see the VAR screen all the time but nobody knows how it works. We will not use it in the Champions League next season. For me, it might be a good project but we shouldn’t rush it.”

Congress decisions

Other decisions approved at UEFA Congress:

1, The HatTrick V solidarity and development programme will receive €775m in its next four-year cycle, from 2020-2024. This represents an increase of almost 30pc from the €600m available for HatTrick IV (2016-2020). Each FA can receive up to €14.1m over four years;

2, The 24 national teams competing in the finals of Euro 2020 will share €371m compared with €301m for Euro 2016 thus:

  • All 24 teams to receive a participating fee of €9.25m.
  • Group phase performance bonuses of €1.5m for a win and €750,000 for a draw.
  • Teams participating in the round of 16 will receive €2m, the eight quarter-finalists an additional €3.25m, semi-finalists an extra €5m.
  • The 2020 European champions will receive €10m and €7m for the runners-up.
  • This means that, if the champions have also won all three of their group matches, the total prize money they earn will amount to €34m, compared with a maximum €27m in 2016.

3, Juan Luis Larrea Sarobe (Spain) was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee for a one-year term;

4, Sándor Csányi (Hungary) was elected FIFA vice-president for a one-year term: he will be replaced as an ordinary member of FIFA Council by Fernando Gomes (Portugal) the 2019 UEFA Congress.

5, Lars-Christer Olsson was ratified as the representative of the European Professional Football Leagues on the UEFA exco until 2021;

6, Jersey’s membership application was rejected.

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