Norway will continue to use VAR in its top flight after a vote among clubs across the country’s football system came out in favour of retaining the technology. An emotive saga that has caused severe ructions concluded at the Norwegian Football Federation’s general assembly with 321 votes in favour of VAR and 129 against.
The outcome was effectively decided by grassroots clubs who do not use VAR. Those in the top two divisions had already formally recommended that it be discontinued.
The outcome spells victory for the NFF and its president, Lise Klaveness, who had argued vigorously to keep using VAR in the face of widespread protests at Eliteserien games. The federation had backed its retention despite a vote in January, passed by 19-13, by the country’s top 32 clubs to cease its deployment.
A long and impassioned debate at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, which rumbled for more than two hours, was followed by the vote. It fell to those present among Norway’s lower-division and amateur clubs, who traditionally have tended to vote in line with the NFF’s recommendations, to swing the balance in either direction. Before the discussion, the leaders of the NFF’s influential 18 district associations had all come out in favour of the status quo.
It means Norway, which adopted VAR in 2023, will not become the first country to approve its abolition. Questions will rage about the process behind Saturday’s vote and particularly the fact that it overrules those to whom VAR holds most relevance.
Many of VAR’s opponents feel the NFF should have acted in accordance with the leading clubs, who made their decisions after internal votes by their members. Klaveness said in August that their stance would “carry weight” in the NFF’s recommendation to the general assembly.
Klaveness has previously acknowledged the VAR process requires improvement, while arguing that Norway’s referees may be hamstrung in their ambitions to work in Uefa competitions if they are not using it at home.
Protests against VAR in Norway have included tennis balls and fishcakes being thrown on to pitch in top-flight matches. This year’s Eliteserien season will begin on 29 March. Norway’s neighbour Sweden stands alone as the only European country to have rejected VAR.
