Women's World Cup 2019: VAR to be used in tournament for first time

The video assistant referee system will be used at the Women's World Cup in France this summer, Fifa has confirmed.

It will be the first time VAR has been used at the tournament, having made its debut in the men's World Cup last year in Russia.

No senior women's domestic or international competitions use VAR.

The 27 referees and 48 assistant referees selected for the Women's World Cup took part in VAR training at a camp in Qatar last month.

The training was to gauge whether to use the technology at the tournament, with world football's governing body approving its use at a Fifa Council meeting in Miami on Friday.

The Women's World Cup runs from 7 June to 7 July and features 24 teams, including England, Scotland and defending champions the USA.

England head coach Phil Neville has previously said he is concerned about the standard of refereeing at the World Cup, adding it was "important" that VAR was introduced to women's football.

VAR is used in some men's domestic cup games in England and will make its debut in the Premier League from next season.

It is being used in this year's Champions League knockout stages, before being applied to the whole competition next year, while the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga all use the system.

VAR is limited to four types of match-changing incidents - goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity.

After an incident occurs, the referee informs the VAR or is informed by them that it needs reviewing before the referee decides to review video footage on the side of the pitch or accepts the information from the VAR to make a decision.

There has been criticism of the system, including that fans in the stadium do not know what is happening, and controversial incidents, such as Manchester United's injury-time penalty winner against Paris St-Germain in the Champions League last 16 earlier this month.