McKenzie to brief Safa over stalled VAR rollout

South Africa’s sport, arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, will hold a briefing with the South African Football Association (Safa) about video assistant refereeing (VAR) at Freedom Park in Pretoria on Wednesday.

The meeting follows McKenzie’s demand in August for Safa to repay money provided for the introduction of VAR. He gave the association 21 days to return the funds and warned that he would take action if it failed to do so.

McKenzie had allocated millions of rand directly to Safa to support the initial implementation of the system and the training of referees.

VAR had been expected to be introduced in South Africa’s top-flight competition this season, but the planned rollout did not take place.

The briefing will be streamed courtesy of SABC.