Blatter critical of VAR

Blatter, in what could be seen as a dig at his successor Gianni Infantino, has come out in criticism of the system after arriving in Russia. The disgraced former FIFA chief is in the country at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, and gave his view on VAR to the 'Press Association'.

"I think it's not the right approach," he said of the system, which was pushed through by Infantino.

"I'm not against help [for referees] - we started it already [with goal-line technology] but if you have this VAR referee, he is like the head of a tribunal and you must have the same for all matches."

He believes that the current use of the technology is inconsistent. "It says in the laws of the game 'in the opinion of the referee'," he explained. "So if you have a South American or a European or some other referee, they have a different approach to the problem."

"I'm not against technology but it's not consistent."