Patrick Nelson: Video Support system could be rolled out as VAR alternative in the Irish League
Irish Football Association (IFA) chief executive Patrick Nelson believes the Irish League could benefit from video support for match officials in the future.
He made the comments as the game's law-makers were in Northern Ireland for the 139th annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
Support was given to continued trials of the Video Support (VS) system, which is designed for competitions that do not have the resources to implement VAR and have a very small number of cameras in use.
The system allows coaches to make two challenges to decisions in a match, losing a challenge if the original referee’s decision is upheld.
Nelson expressed an interest in perhaps introducing this into league football in Northern Ireland, but did not set a timeline.
"I think it was pointed out by Pierluigi Collina that we now have VAR in 65 countries and more than 200 competitions, but of course that leaves many, many countries that haven't been able to invest in this," said Nelson on the BBC Sport NI website.
"Fifa have trialled this and it has some really good potential for smaller countries and I would include Northern Ireland in that.
"It's different from VAR. It's only based on one, two, or three cameras and it doesn't require specialist VAR officials, it just requires a monitor operator to assist the referee."
Nelson acknowledged that the introduction of VAR would be too expensive to implement but that the potential use of a VS system will ultimately come down to the Northern Ireland Football League, who are the organising body of top level domestic men and women's football in the Province.
"It's not something that we could roll out today or tomorrow, but it's something that we've watched with interest," he added.
"It's something that could work given the necessary finance within the Northern Ireland Football League.
"We don't manage the NIFL directly so it's a decision for them, but every game in that league is covered by at least one camera, so that gives us the option at some point when we've gone a little further down the line with the testing that Fifa are heading up."