South Africa’s head of referees Victor Gomes has confirmed that the use of VAR in the PSL is getting close.

The use of video assistant referee has been both effective and controversial in some of the major leagues in Europe, but Gomes confirmed that it was the future of football and that the PSL would be going the VAR route shortly.

Speaking to the media at the COSAFA awards in Johannesburg he said: “We’re sitting for some budgetary costs in the next two weeks, and that’s how far we are already.

We’ve been working for the past year but it’s not something that you can switch on and say, ‘we’re ready to do it’. You need to go through the processes and the budgets, so it’s quite intense.

“VAR is the future of football.

“It will help the PSL, it will help any league in the world. VAR is here to stay.

“We are not ready, but it’s a process. I keep saying that it’s like a pilot license, there are a certain number of hours that referees need to go through.

“We are ready to start their training and I would say it’s not only referees, the broadcasters and all of that stuff need to come on board with that. It’s a big process and we don’t want to rush something and get it wrong.

“We want to bring it in and do it correctly so that everybody trusts it,” he said.