For the first time in a regular-season Major League Soccer game, league officials will be testing Video Assistant Referee technology Friday when the Rapids host Vancouver as the league prepares to officially implement the replay technology this summer.
The league is calling it an “offline” test, meaning it will have no impact on the game, and the officiating crew will do its usual job. A “surrogate referee” will review close calls using video feeds from Altitude but will not have any contact with the game referees.
Howard Webb, a longtime English Premier League referee who called the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa, was hired by MLS in March to take charge of the project with the title Manager of Video Assistant Referee Operations.