2019 AFCON: CAF confirm VAR for tournament quarter-finals

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have approved the use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for use at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.


President CAF’s Referees Committee, Souleyman Waberi, confirmed this development on their website on Tuesday, April 30 explaining that the VAR will start off at the quarter-finals stage of the tournament.

The regulatory body explained that VAR; introduced for the first time will not be used during the group stages of the competition because of the lack of logistics and capacities to operate the system.

“VAR at the forthcoming Cup of Nations in Egypt will begin from the quarter-finals of the competition,” Waberi added. Interestingly, this will be VAR debut during an AFCON tournament, but it is not the first time it will be used in African football.

During the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco, VAR was put on trial from the quarter-final rounds, which enjoyed a huge success and saw CAF resolved to adopt the technology for the finals of the Champions League and Confederation Cup.

This will be the first time in the history of the AFCON that VAR will be used and the it will also the first time the competition is expanded to 24 teams with the number of venues to play the games seen an increase from four to six.

The tournament is set to kick off from 21 June to 19 July. CAF conducted the draws for the tournament on Friday, April 12, in Egypt. All the 24 countries that will play at the 2019 African Cup of Nations have known their opponents as host Nation Egypt are in Group A and will face Uganda, DR Congo and Zimbabwe.

Super Eagles of Nigeria have missed the last two editions of the African Cup of Nations, and Gernot Rohr’s men fall in Group B where they will face Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar.