The opening weekend of the Canadian Premier League's eighth season served as the debut of the Football Video Support system, which grants each team at least two challenges per match.

It was thrown into the spotlight immediately in the Forge vs. Atlético Ottawa opener, after the Hammers were awarded a penalty for a foul on Brian Wright inside the box. Ottawa challenged the decision, arguing there had been a high foot in the build-up.

Referee Yusri Rudolf was called to the screen and, alongside fourth official Scott Bowman, spent over five minutes reviewing the replays. On television, fans knew what was happening, but inside the stadium, there was nothing: no announcements, no replays, and no indication of what the referee was even looking at. The challenge was unsuccessful, and Forge converted from the spot.

In the second half, after Forge doubled their lead through Ben Paton, Scott Bowman called Rudolf back to the screen on his own initiative to check a potential handball in the build-up. That review took roughly two minutes before the goal was upheld. With seven minutes of gametime already lost to checks, Ottawa then used their final challenge card late on for a soft contact inside the box that was never realistically going to be overturned.

FVS stops play for far too long. It's even worse than VAR. #CPLSoccer

— versita 🧸♔ (@versitawaa) April 6, 2026

Football Video Support was off to a rocky start.

The system was not called upon in the second match between Vancouver FC and Halifax, but returned to the spotlight in Cavalry's 2-1 win over Pacific on Sunday. For once, a challenge led to a call being overturned, with Cavalry successfully winning a penalty after a foul on Jay Herdman, which was converted by Tobias Warschewski.

Later in the second half, fourth official Mario Al-Ayass sent referee Sebastian Noshinravani to the screen to check a play prior to Cavalry's second goal, which appeared to show Warschewski using his hands to position the ball at the corner flag before playing it to a teammate. After two minutes of review, Noshinravani saw nothing wrong with it and confirmed the goal.

Near the end of the match, Cavalry made another challenge, pushing for a red card against a Pacific player in the dying minutes. Noshinravani spent another two minutes at the screen before upholding his original decision.

nothing will make me tune out quicker than watching a worse and more ridiculous version of VAR (FVS) waste everybody's time. No thank you. #canpl

— Christina (@christina6ys.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 7:35 PM

Absolutely hated it. Only watched the Forge match and that late hail-Mary by the Ottawa coach enraged me. There's no consequence if you're wrong. The other one, the penalty, was a five-minute fiasco. Giving the coaches the power to stop play is beyond stupid.

— Red and Blue (@lookingforvalue.bsky.social) April 5, 2026 at 8:48 PM

In total, FVS was used six times across the three opening matches, with just one check resulting in an overturned call. Over ten minutes of playing time were lost in the process, and while it is still early days, Football Video Support has not exactly passed its first test.