Infantino said that, despite initial fears, the VAR system had worked well, it had reviewed a of 19 decisions in the 62 matches so far and had corrected 16 decisions which were initially wrong.
“This is progress, this is better than the past,” he said. “VAR is not changing football, it is cleaning football.”
“It is difficult to think of the World Cup without VAR, it has been certainly a more just competition…The goal scored from an offside position is finished in football, at least in football with VAR,” Infantino added.
He said VAR’s deterrent effect had reduced the number of direct red cards for violent play from 16 in the 1998 tournament to none this time.
“Everyone knows that, whatever you do, someone will see it… one of the 30-odd cameras will spot it and you will be sent off,” the 48-year-old said.
Infantino did not give any new information on the whether the first 48-team tournament would be in Qatar in 2022 instead of in 2026 as originally planned.
“First we will discuss with the Qataris and then with the FIFA Council and stakeholders and decide calmly what the decision is,” he said. “For the moment, we have a World Cup with 32 teams.”