Does the Ghana Premier League use VAR? Where African football stands on video refereeing

In April 2021, the Ghana Football Association announced a genuine milestone: FIFA had approved a project team for implementing Video Assistant Referee technology in Ghana’s domestic competitions. The announcement came with a striking claim attached, that Ghana would become the first country in West Africa, and one of the first in Africa overall, to use VAR domestically.

The project team included GFA General Secretary Prosper Harrison Addo alongside Confederation of African Football instructors Eddy Mallet, Jerome Damon, and Desire Doue, with plans at the time targeting full implementation by the 2022-23 league season.

A Timeline That Kept Extending

That 2022-23 target came and went without full domestic VAR rollout. By November 2024, GFA Referees Manager Alex Kotey was still describing the federation’s ambitions in future terms, explicitly pointing to the widely praised VAR implementation at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire as the model Ghana hoped to eventually emulate. Around that same period, the GFA confirmed it would meet with a FIFA delegation in Accra specifically to discuss introducing VAR in the country’s domestic leagues, language suggesting the process remained genuinely in discussion rather than completed.

More recent GFA communications describe the process for VAR implementation as having “begun,” a phrase that, read honestly against the 2021 approval announcement, suggests a genuinely long, multi-year runway between initial FIFA approval and actual matchday deployment. Readers should check current GFA announcements directly for the most up-to-date status, since this is exactly the kind of infrastructure project where the gap between announcement and delivery has already proven significant.

Why VAR Takes So Long to Implement

VAR isn’t simply a camera and a headset. FIFA’s own technical standards require either a full VAR system, using at least four cameras, or a lighter “VAR Light” setup using four to eight cameras with the system fully operated by the video assistant referee themselves. Beyond hardware, competition organizers need dedicated training programs for referees and match officials, reliable stadium connectivity, and adherence to FIFA and IFAB’s Implementation Assistance and Approval Programme, which standardizes how new competitions bring VAR online.

This layered requirement helps explain why a federation can secure initial approval, as Ghana did in 2021, and still take years to reach actual matchday implementation. The technical, training, and financial requirements are genuinely substantial, particularly for a federation already managing the funding constraints covered throughout this site’s coverage of Ghanaian football.

How Ghana Compares to South Africa

Ghana isn’t alone in this extended timeline. South Africa’s Premier Soccer League has pursued VAR through a similarly drawn-out process. As early as February 2023, South African Football Association head of referees Abdul Ebrahim described VAR implementation as “not far away,” a response to mounting frustration from club coaches over officiating decisions.

More than two years later, in September 2025, South Africa’s Department of Sport, Arts and Culture announced a fresh 82 million rand allocation specifically for the VAR project, funding a request for proposals process, stadium assessments, and a dedicated VAR training center. This more recent, substantial funding commitment suggests South Africa may now be closer to actual implementation than Ghana, even though both federations started expressing serious VAR ambitions around a similar period.

Where VAR Actually Works in African Football Today

Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa have been named among the few African nations to have genuinely used VAR in some capacity, reviewing decisions on goals, penalties, straight red cards, and cases of mistaken identity. The clearest, most widely praised example of VAR working well in an African football context came at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire, a tournament-specific deployment rather than an ongoing domestic league implementation.

That AFCON deployment has become the reference point GFA officials themselves point to when describing their own ambitions, a genuine acknowledgment that continental tournament infrastructure, backed directly by CAF and FIFA resources, has moved faster than most individual domestic leagues have managed on their own.

What the Research Actually Shows

Academic research examining VAR’s impact specifically at the Africa Cup of Nations found genuinely measurable effects. Comparing matches from the 2015 tournament, played without VAR, against the 2023 tournament, played with it, researchers found statistically significant decreases in both offsides and fouls after VAR’s introduction, alongside a significant increase in total playing time across both halves.

These findings align with how VAR has generally functioned in other footballing contexts worldwide: reducing certain error-prone decision categories while extending match duration due to review stoppages, a genuine tradeoff between accuracy and flow that continues to generate debate among fans, coaches, and administrators everywhere VAR operates, not just in Africa specifically.

The Case For and Against Domestic VAR in Ghana

Supporters of bringing VAR to the Ghana Premier League point directly to the AFCON 2023 example and to persistent frustration among fans and clubs over contentious refereeing decisions, a frustration that echoes complaints raised in South Africa’s own domestic league. Correcting clear and obvious errors on goals, penalties, and red cards could meaningfully improve competitive fairness and public trust in match officiating.

Skeptics raise genuinely valid concerns too, pointing to VAR’s cost and infrastructure demands relative to the GFA’s broader funding constraints, along with the risk that additional review stoppages could disrupt the passionate, fast-paced matchday atmosphere covered in our piece on Ghana’s football fan culture. Balancing these tradeoffs, accuracy against cost and flow, remains a genuinely open question for Ghanaian football administrators as implementation continues.

What to Watch For Next

Given the pattern so far, extended timelines between announcement and actual deployment, the clearest signal that Ghana has genuinely reached domestic VAR implementation will be confirmed matchday usage during actual Ghana Premier League fixtures, not another funding or training announcement. Readers following this story closely should treat federation statements about VAR “beginning” with reasonable patience, given how long the process has already run since the initial 2021 approval.

What Fans Can Do in the Meantime

Until domestic VAR reaches actual matchday deployment, Ghanaian football fans following contentious refereeing decisions have relied largely on post-match video review through broadcasters and social media rather than in-game correction. This creates a genuinely different fan experience compared to leagues with live VAR, where a controversial decision gets addressed within the same match rather than debated afterward without any official resolution.

This gap also shapes how seriously fans and pundits scrutinize refereeing performance more broadly, a dynamic that connects to the broader conversation around officiating standards covered in our guide to how the Ghana Premier League works. Continued pressure from fans, clubs, and media coverage for genuine accountability in officiating, VAR or otherwise, remains a meaningful part of how Ghanaian football culture engages with the sport’s ongoing technology gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Ghana Premier League currently use VAR? As of the most recent available GFA communications, domestic VAR implementation remains an active, ongoing process rather than a fully completed rollout, despite initial FIFA approval dating back to 2021.

Which African countries have actually used VAR? Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa have been named among the few African nations to use VAR in some capacity, with the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire widely cited as the continent’s clearest successful VAR deployment.

Why has VAR taken so long to implement in Ghana? VAR requires substantial camera infrastructure, referee training, stadium connectivity, and adherence to FIFA’s standardized implementation program, all significant investments for a federation managing broader funding constraints.

Does VAR actually change how matches are played? Research on the Africa Cup of Nations found VAR’s introduction led to significant decreases in offsides and fouls, alongside increased total playing time due to review stoppages.

Final Word

Ghana’s VAR journey, from a confident 2021 announcement to still-ongoing implementation steps years later, reflects a broader pattern across African domestic football, where continental tournaments have generally reached VAR deployment faster than individual national leagues. South Africa’s parallel, similarly extended timeline suggests this gap between ambition and delivery isn’t unique to Ghana specifically, but a genuine, shared infrastructure challenge across the region.