The USL Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday will have a new feature, as the USL will trial the implementation of a limited form of video review for the remainder of the tournament. The league is the latest domestic competition to trial the new alternative to VAR, as FIFA continues to seek information about the viability of less-intensive forms of video review in competitions around the globe.

The system, called Football Video Support (FVS), will allow for checks on four elements of the game: goal/no goal, penalty/no penalty, direct red cards, and mistaken identity. The only decisions that will be automatically reviewed are for goals, where the fourth official will determine whether a “clear and obvious” offense was committed by the scoring team.

Otherwise, teams will have the ability to make two challenges per game. The team’s head coach must make the challenge; in other leagues where FVS has been trialed, this will be accomplished by making a hand signal to the official, and then handing a challenge card to the fourth official. The official will then review the play on a pitch-side monitor, using any available camera angles, and issue a final decision. If the challenge is upheld, the challenging team will retain the challenge.

FVS was first introduced during the 2021 Futsal World Cup, and was subsequently employed at the 2024 FIFA Youth Cup and the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, before finding wider testing and adoption in 2025. At the beginning of the 2025-26 season, the system was trialed in three domestic leagues: Italy’s third-tier Serie C, and Spain’s men’s third-tier Primera Federación and first-tier Liga F and is also being used in the current Canadian Premier League season.

Hartford manager Brendan Burke is a frequent critic of the quality of officiating in the USL Championship, and he was quick to praise the league for what he sees as a step towards more consistency.

“Thank God. It couldn't have come soon enough.I applaud the league in their effort. Everyone that worked behind the scenes to get us there: ownership, whoever played a part in taking this step forward. And it might lose me a few games, I get that. But I'd rather have the game decided on merit every time. This won't eliminate all of them, but it'll eliminate a lot. So I'm I'm really happy, I'm pleased with the league for  taking this huge step forward.”

In recent weeks, Burke has critiqued officiating performances at Hartford games, notably in road losses to Loudoun and Rhode Island. In El Clamico, he described the officiating as “horrendous,” and against Loudoun, he said “I don’t know what we’re doing” after what he described as a “car accident” tackle on TJ Presthus in the box that was not given as a penalty. At the same time, Burke also praised the performance of Corbyn May in a recent nil-nil draw against Phoenix, saying that “he did a really good job,” and adding that May was “consistent throughout the night.” That consistency, said Burke “is all we want every week as players and coaches.”

And FVS is an attempt to bring some of that consistency, although it also brings many of the pitfalls that accompany VAR. Anecdotal evidence from trials in the Canadian Premier League suggests that the implementation varies, with some officials taking in-depth looks at challenged calls while others appear to immediately dismiss challenges and uphold their original decisions without meaningfully considering new evidence.

It also remains to be seen exactly how coaches determine which calls to challenge. For someone like Burke, who has a reputation for finding fault with numerous calls (or non calls) in any given game, it might be hard to decide when to pull out the card. The Hartford manager is aiming for balance, however, while acknowledging his reputation. “I'll approach it in a measured way,” said Burke, adding that “my assistants immediately joked that I wouldn't be allowed to hold the challenge flag.”

There will undoubtedly be some chaos across the four matches where the technology will be deployed on Wednesday, but players, managers and fans will be hoping that this form of video review avoids some of the worst excesses of VAR while bringing a semblance of consistency to games that also mitigates the most egregious referring decisions. 

Hartford Athletic are back in action on Wednesday night as they take on Charlotte Independence in the quarterfinals of the USL Cup.