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Former referee Roberto Rosetti says technology to assist referees should be implemented in Serie A from 2018. Rosetti, who refereed the Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany, is currently head of trials of a new video assistant referee (VAR) system in Italy's Serie A. He told Gazzetta dello Sport how he is aiming for the technology to become a standard part of the game from next year. "There is no turning back now: technology to help referees is a reality," Rosetti said. "Experimentation is helping us improve it and find the right balance. Steps have been taken and more will be done. There is a lot to improve, but we are heading in the right direction [for it to be ready in 2018]." Italy is at the forefront of plans to introduce the new technology to assist referees with their decision-making. Two of the Italian national team's recent friendlies have been chosen by FIFA for testing of the new system, which is also being trialled in an offline mode for several Serie A fixtures this season. Rosetti is overseeing the project and he believes its ultimate implementation could not come too soon. "Last summer, during the get together with Serie A referees, I asked them all to think of the three biggest mistakes they had committed," Rosetti said. "Then I asked them if, with technology, those mistakes would still have been made. "These are 22 top-level officials and only eight of those mistakes could not have been changed by VAR as they were open to interpretation, but the other ones would have been corrected with a great benefit to the fairness of the game, and to the referee -- and I am talking from personal experience. "My career ended at the 2010 World Cup for a clear offside for [Carlos] Tevez which was not spotted in the quarterfinal between Argentina and Mexico. We were rightly sent home, but without that mistake, probably we would have been in charge of the final. "Goal-line technology has already proven how it is possible to avoid futile controversy, but the important thing is that we need to understand the range of situations in which VAR can be used." The current phase of experimentation is helping Rossetti and his team narrow down the scope of VAR to ensure it will not cause more controversy than it is devised to eliminate. "Since we started testing in Italy, we have watched 31 games and seen a total of 235 incidents which required intervention," Rossetti said. "It has taken an average of 27.2 seconds to reach a decision, which is really little. "Only nine [of the referees' decisions] would have been amended, which means that 226 decisions that the referees made were confirmed as correct by video evidence. "We are evaluating where the best place would be to add a TV [for the referee to view contentious incidents] and maybe the best position for it would be on the opposite side of the field to the benches. "We are able to view the replays in total autonomy and if it leads to a decision being changed, maybe this replay can then be shown to a TV audience, or maybe even to those in the stadium -- we're evaluating the pros and cons."
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