How CAF put in the hours to launch VAR in Cote d’Ivoire

With the challenges around Africa and the new technology, it was never going to be easy for Doue and his team to prepare.

Speaking to SABC Sport in Cote d’Ivoire at a referee’s workshop, he painted a picture of the long journey.

READ: Jose Peseiro fixed on building own Super Eagles legacy

"We have been working very hard on this aspect because as you know this is a challenge for us because we don't have many leagues using VAR. So, it's for CAF to do all the preparation job and we have been preparing this for more than one year, with courses, with seminars, with games especially, we did the last course here in Abidjan, with as many tournaments, just for referees to improve and to finetune," Doue said.

Doue insists the progress will continue soon after the competition with the decision to open up VAR training centres in each of the CAF zones.

"CAF have also been investing a lot in VAR, we have our own equipment for training and CAF is now purchasing equipment for each zone. We want to have a VAR training centre in each zone. So, the referees will have the opportunity to go close, to use, to practice and to implement. So far, during this competition, we have invested in this during the preparation and in general we think that we are doing good," Doue added.

There have been some decisive decisions and more drama will be expected as the AFCON reaches the knockout phase this weekend.

Doue has told match officials not to rest on the success of the group stages.

"We have space for improvement, we need to continue to work and we have to make the analysis, follow the procedures to finetune the checks, to reduce the time of checks, everything. We are glad to hear when we have good feedback, we are always happy because it's not usual to be like this. We are very happy but at the same time we know that this is for the moment."