MOSCOW, July 13, 2018 (News Wires) - Goals scored from offside positions will be a thing of the past, at least in competitions where video assistant referees (VARs) are used, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said Friday as he hailed the success of the technology at the World Cup in Russia. Infantino, dressed in a red volunteer's uniform and in triumphant mood, also declared the tournament the "best World Cup ever" in an hour-long news conference. Infantino said that, despite initial fears, the VAR system had worked well, it had reviewed 19 decisions in the 62 matches so far and had corrected 16 decisions which were initially wrong. "This is progress, this is better than the past," he said. "VAR is not changing football, it is cleaning football, making it more honest and transparent and helping referees to make the right decisions." "It is difficult to think of the World Cup without VAR, it has been certainly a more just competition and this is what we wanted to achieve." "The goal scored from an offside position is finished in football, at least in football with VAR," Infantino added. "You will never see any more a goal scored in an offside position, it's finished because either you are or are not offside." He said VAR's deterrent effect had reduced the number of direct red cards for violent play from 16 in the 1998 tournament to none this time. "Everyone knows that, whatever you do, someone will see it... one of the 30-odd cameras will spot it and you will be sent off," the 48-year-old said.
