FIFA 21 will not feature the introduction of VAR, though it is possible that the five subs rule is included in the future.
EA Sports are always looking to make the next FIFA title as realistic as possible and VAR, now widely part of football across the globe, would certainly bring that authenticity.
But while goal-line technology has been part of the FIFA experience in recent years since it was instilled into the beautiful game, lead gameplay producer Sam Rivera has confirmed there is no video ref this year - and he feels as though it's not a worthwhile addition.
He told SPORTbible: "It's part of football and a lot of goals go to VAR nowadays and people are like, 'That should be in FIFA!' and I agree if you look at realism, replicating real football, it should be there.
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"However, it's a video game and at the end of the day we have different priorities that we need to work on. With VAR, we feel if it doesn't add as much as other features maybe do, to the actual experience.
"Whenever a collision happens we calculate right away and the rule system kicks in so we see there was ball contact and not player contact so this is not a foul.
"In real life the referee can go and check if it is a penalty kick or not. I think it's a matter of priorities, we felt other features can provide a better, more fun, experience."
More recently we've seen teams have the ability to make five substitutions as a means to manage fitness levels following the break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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FIFA players won't have that luxury in the virtual world of football when October 9 rolls around and FIFA 21 is released, though Rivera admits it could be implemented in the future.
He added: "It could but at the moment it's not in there because the game was planned before the pandemic and before coronavirus. So it's with crowds and regular football rules.
"We plan it from September to January and then it's very difficult to adapt at the last minute but if this rule continues it may be something we look to add in for the future."
We do know, however, that real-life referees are expected to be featured in FIFA 21 - along with the new rule that sees goalkeepers pass to defenders in the box from goal kicks.
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Topics: gaming news, GAMING, FIFA 21 news, FIFA, EA Sports, FIFA 21, VAR
