Three Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) representatives have completed an educational training seminar in Saudi Arabia on Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. The trip comes as the Confederation continues to implement VAR as part of its continental upgrades before the OFC Professional League kicks off in January 2026.
OFC VAR Project Manager, Mihaly Fabian was joined by instructors Jamie Cross and Nick Waldron as they sought to improve their knowledge on VAR to streamline the OFC’s adoption of the technology.
Training on VAR began with the instructors watching how VAR was used across a number of Saudi League matches in Riyadh. The trio then attended seminars in Gassim for referees and VAR Officials designed for Saudi Arabia’s top two divisions, the Roshn Saudi League and Yelo Saudi League.
As the week progressed the instructors first participated in a Yelo Saudi League seminar, discussing post-match analysis. Finally, the team attended a Roshn Saudi League seminar to understand how VAR is utilised at the highest levels of play. Both sessions covered critical topics such as handballs, penalties, offsides and general VAR procedures.
OFC Head of Refereeing, Kevin Stoltenkamp underlined the significance of the seminars for the Confederation as a whole.
“Providing our match officials with exposure to high-level VAR environments is crucial. This experience will accelerate their development and support OFC’s implementation of VAR across Oceania,” he said via press release.
Upon returning to the Confederation, Fabian expressed his gratitude for the opportunity.
“We were fortunate to learn from some of the best VAR instructors in the world. We would like to make a special thank you to Manuel Navarro, Farkhad Abdullaev, Hakan Anaz and Ali Altraifi,” he said in a press release.
“SAFF’s (Saudi Arabian Football Federation) incredible hospitality and willingness to share knowledge made this an invaluable experience. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a strong, long-term collaboration between OFC and SAFF.”
The Oceania Football Confederation will continue to work to roll out VAR across the Confederation as it progresses through stage three of FIFA’s Implementation Assistant and Approval Programme (IAAP).
