FIFA President Gianni Infantino has received the unanimous backing of all ten member associations of CONMEBOL ahead of the elective 73rd FIFA Congress – which takes places in Kigali, Rwanda on 16 March 2023. The confirmation of support came as the FIFA President attended the CONMEBOL Council meeting in Luque, Paraguay – where the motion that VAR should be used in all phases of all CONMEBOL competitions, from 2023 onwards, was also ratified.

Harnessing technology to meet the needs of the modern game is a key element of President Infantino’s Vision 2020-2023 – and the continued expansion of the rollout of the technology needed to implement VAR across the world, an important part of FIFA’s mandate to make football truly global. The Council confirmed that from 2023, the CONMEBOL Libertadores, CONMEBOL Sudamericana and CONMEBOL Recopa will each implement VAR technology from the opening phases through to the final – and it reported that all previous technical and logistical obstacles around implementing the technology had been resolved. The news is the latest advancement in officiating in South America. In March 2022, the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) – with the help of FIFA Forward funds – inaugurated its brand-new Centre for Refereeing Technology and Development – a facility with seven VOR rooms to operate VAR, an auditorium for training and offices for the AFA’s National Refereeing Directorate.