KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — The use of video assistant referees (VAR) was one of the top agendas discussed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin in his meeting with International Football Federation (Fifa) Referees Committee chairman, Pierluigi Collina at the 73rd Fifa Congress in Kigali, Rwanda yesterday.

According to a FAM statement today, Collina suggested to Hamidin whether to use ‘Full VAR’ or ‘VAR Light’ in the local football scene.

"Collina explained the two types of VAR that can be our choice, namely Full VAR which is equipped with a minimum of eight cameras or VAR Light which has less than eight cameras. Even though Collina suggested the use of Full VAR, he explained that VAR Light can also be used as an introduction as it is 50 per cent cheaper in price.

"But Collina warned that the quality is definitely different from Full VAR if we choose VAR Light,” said Hamidin who attended the congress as a member of the Fifa Council in the statement.

He said following the proposal in Kigali, he said FAM will hold further discussions with the Malaysian Football League (MFL) together with the Fifa Referees unit regarding the advent of VAR in local football.

In the meantime, Hamidin as a member of the Fifa Council, also met with several international football leaders and discussed the plan to send national footballers to foreign clubs and Tier 1 Fifa international matches.

"At this meeting, we discussed the potential of bilateral cooperation, especially for the national team to hold friendly matches abroad, including Fiji, Montenegro, Cyprus, Sierra Leone and Rwanda.

"We are also discussing in detail with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan and South Korea about sending quality players to play in the leagues of these countries,” he said.

In conjunction with the congress, Hamidin also attended the Fifa Council meeting on Tuesday (March 14) together with several big names in the world football arena, including the president of the United Arab Emirates FA Sheikh Rashid Al Nuaimi; Saudi Arabia Football Federation president Yasser Al Misehal and Japan FA president Kohzo Tashima.

Other Fifa Council members who attended the meeting were president of Montenegro FA Dejan Savicevic; president of the Cyprus FA George Koumas; Fiji FA president Rajesh Patel; Secretary-general of the Qatar FA Mansour al-Ansari and Fifa Council member from CAF who is also a member of the Fifa Foundation Board of Directors, Isha Johansen. — Bernama