World Cup Diary: VAR a huge success, says Fifa’s Pierluigi

Referees committee chairman Pierluigi Collina has confirmed Fifa cracked down on holding by defenders at set-pieces after a series of early incidents at the World Cup in Russia.

Collina was asked why England’s Harry Kane and Serbia’s Aleksandar Mitrovic were not given penalties for being held during games against Tunisia and Switzerland, respectively. And while he would not comment on specific incidents, he said: “You might have appreciated there were some incidents that suddenly disappeared or started to be punished. It’s impossible to be right from the start but because we noticed, we intervened and we fine-tuned. Things have changed during the tournament.”