VAR to be used in England v Germany

England’s friendly clash with Germany at Wembley on Friday will see a video assistant referee (VAR) used in an official match for the first time in the United Kingdom.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) agreed to a two-year test of VAR in 2016, making goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity cases reviewable by match officials.

VARs and other officials do not have the power to insist that the referee consults video evidence of an incident, but they are able to recommend that a decision is looked at.

Wembley has seen VAR used once before, with a charity match in October playing the role of testing ground for the system.

Fittingly, England and Germany matches have a history of controversial incidents which would have been avoided with VAR.

England won the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany partly down to Geoff Hurst’s second goal being given despite not crossing the line.

And, at the 2010 World Cup, Frank Lampard thought he had scored to tie the game at 2-2, but his effort was wrongly deemed not to have crossed the line. England went on to lose 4-1.