Gayton McKenzie’s empty VAR promises

Sports, Arts, and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie promised that South Africa would implement Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at the beginning of the 2025/26 Premier Soccer League season.

However, gaining access to the millions needed to do so has proven a lot more challenging than McKenzie first imagined.

“We are busy testing the different options this week, and we have gone to market for proposals. VAR will be part of the league next season,” McKenzie said in a tweet in April 2025.

To date, the technology designed to maintain a higher standard of officiating matches has been implemented in over 50 leagues worldwide, with several other African countries, including Egypt, Tanzania, and Morocco, already utilising it.

At the end of 2024, McKenzie first mentioned the need to implement the technology in South Africa, saying that “all football fans know that the time for VAR in SA football has arrived.”

He shared some initial cost estimates for the technology, stating that it would require a one-time sum of R80 million, cost R70,000 per match, and necessitate additional funds for referee training.

Following McKenzie’s April tweet, the South African Football Association issued a tender for service providers to bid for the supply of the necessary VAR equipment, preparation of training programmes, and training of video and match officials.

At the time, he said that FIFA regulations had to be implemented by the country. According to the minister, South Africa received “about a dozen proposals” after the bidding window closed.

McKenzie’s updates on the technology made its implementation sound imminent. “We are delivering on our promise on VAR. Money was made available, requests for proposals happened,” he said in April.

“Testing has been done with the help of @SuperSport. We have made arrangements for our referees to be trained by the best in the world.”

McKenzie also consulted with several other football bodies that have implemented VAR around the world, such as the first division of Spanish football.

“We concluded an extremely successful meeting with Javier Tebas, the chairman of LaLiga,” McKenzie said on X in April.

“We agreed on assistance in training aspirant referees in VAR technology and sharing with us the best practices of La Liga’s school soccer program.”

Funding challenges

In June, the minister revealed that the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture had budgeted R90 million for the technology.

It was later revealed that McKenzie requested the reallocation of R82 million in funding from sports federations to fund VAR.

He explained that the National Treasury only approved the transfer of R20 million to the South African Football Association (SAFA) following the cancellation of the Big Walk project.

When his department requested that the balance of R62.7 million be reallocated from sports federations to SAFA, McKenzie said this was “explicitly declined” on 31 October.

“Treasury’s decision was made precisely to safeguard federations’ allocations and to avoid disruption to approved activities, particularly in relation to athlete development, talent identification, and Olympic readiness,” he said.

It is now unclear where McKenzie plans to source the remaining funding to implement the technology. As a result, the minister admitted that VAR will only be implemented in the 2026/27 season.

“When I thought VAR was going to be implemented, I, as the minister, thought that as soon as I bring the money, VAR would be there,” McKenzie said.

“I was then made aware that it doesn’t work like that. The process has changed. New rules govern VAR now. You, as a minister, can’t do it. You have to do it through SAFA and CAF.”

However, he says that SAFA has appointed a VAR team, which has been working closely with FIFA and the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

McKenzie added that the ministry will oversee and control all initial project funding until the system is fully established and stable.