{"id":34243,"date":"2026-05-11T16:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34243"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:14:34","slug":"sa-moves-closer-to-introducing-var-in-local-football","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-moves-closer-to-introducing-var-in-local-football\/","title":{"rendered":"SA moves closer to introducing VAR in local football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African Football Association (SAFA) says plans to introduce Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology in SA football are progressing, with next season still being targeted for implementation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SAFA Finance Committee Chairperson Mxolisi Sibam said the organisation has already received its first round of government funding worth R20 million (about $1.1 million) to help prepare and train officials for the rollout.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The update follows a meeting between the SAFA National Executive Committee and Gayton McKenzie, where VAR was among the issues discussed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a media briefing, Sibam said work on the system has been underway for the past seven months and that final approval of the budget is expected soon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He added that officials overseeing the project are aiming to have VAR fully operational by the start of the next football season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28764,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34243","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SAFA says plans to introduce VAR technology in SA football are progressing","published_date":"2026-05-11 16:03:18","news_description":"SAFA says plans to introduce VAR technology in SA football are progressing","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34244,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34243\/revisions\/34244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}