ACCORDING TO RESEARCH: ‘VAR’ IS CREATING A FAIRER FUTURE FOR FOOTBALL, BUT HOW HAS IT FARED SO FAR IN THE BIGGEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD?
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME; THE PEOPLE’S GAME. FOOTBALL. But it does have its contentious side.
Goals scored in offside positions. Penalties awarded that never were. Straight red cards that were yellow, or worse, awarded to the completely wrong player. These errors have caused hours of debate and frustration.
Football has needed some form of accountability beyond the officials on the pitch. The speed of gameplay requires split second decisions. Pressure is high.
Enter VAR or Video Assistant Referee, a technology system that aids match officials’ decision making and clarifies any ambiguities (that’s the theory anyway).
VAR — THE NEED TO KNOW
To give you a quick overview, here’s the basics of VAR:
- VAR reviews four key decisions:
· Goals
· Penalties
· Red Cards (direct, not second cautions)
· Mistaken Identity
- A panel of three experts review video footage and identify any ‘clear and obvious’ errors.
- The panel advise the referee of the correct course of action, before the referee makes the final decision.
- If a referee makes a ‘clear error’, VAR can overturn the decision e.g. a penalty denied by the referee can be awarded via the VAR panel if it is ‘clear and obvious’.
What a dream for officials down there on the pitch (that’s the theory anyway).
THE GLOBAL SHOWCASES OF ‘VAR’ — FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 & WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2019.
VAR has come a long way since its initial U.S. soccer league pilot in 2016. After international friendly trials leading into 2018, VAR was deemed ready for use on a major stage — the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia — a showcase debut. With 3.57 billion viewers (FIFA 2018), half the global population, VAR had to shine.
By the time the group stages finished, VAR ‘match changing’ decisions (17 official decisions from 335 examinations) were 99.3% accurate, better than the projected 95% that officials would’ve achieve without the technology (ESPN 2018). By the end of the tournament, VAR examined 455 incidents and 20 official decision were made. It’s impressive reading.
FIFA were adamant VAR would persevere and the technology was used again at the Women’s World Cup 2019 in France, last summer.
This time though, there was more controversy over the length of time to make decisions. The Chairman of FIFA’s Refereeing Committee even conceded that mistakes were made, with some feeling officials were using VAR as ‘a comfort blanket’ (Basset cited by BBC 2019).
After such mixed reactions within a year of us, the bigger question loomed — how would VAR fare in the English Premier League?
VAR AND THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
As the world’s most lucrative club league — currently holding a brand value of €8,683 million (Statista 2019) — the Premier League reflects a benchmark for others to follow. The fairest and most accurately officiated of them all.
VAR was rolled out at the start of the 2019/20 season, with examples of the Women’s World Cup used to reflect fan apprehension about its readiness.
That apprehension has since been solidified.
West Ham United entertained Manchester City as part of the opening weekend fixtures. VAR ruled out a goal for an offside infringement, reviewed a potential offside which was not upheld, and a penalty was retaken following an encroachment before the ball was played.
Just weeks later, controversy followed:
- a goal ruled out for accidental contact.
(Chambers — Arsenal versus Crystal Palace)
- a potential offside goal was disallowed, although the player was onside.
(Firmino — Aston Villa versus Liverpool)
- players encroaching during a penalty, but no retake.
(Martial — Norwich versus Man Utd).
Within the first month of use, VAR had missed four key decisions, including two penalties, a red card and a handball offence.
Mike Riley, the official responsible for VAR implementation in the Premier League, even admitted, “VAR didn’t intervene and had they done, we would have a better understanding of the role VAR plays in the game” (Riley, cited by Brown 2019).
There’s clearly a very fine line between the letter of the law and an interpretation of that law, as we seem to be seeing applied differently, week to week.
So, is VAR making football decision making fairer? Based on the evidence above, no.
VAR AWAY FROM CONSISTENT
The technology itself is not the issue. It clearly works. So why so much inconsistency?
Football, like many things, thrives on opinion, especially when its divided. Whilst some fouls and incidents are clear and obvious, others remain ambiguous and are open to debate. Officials interpret laws different which provides inconsistency and opens up VAR to greater scrutiny.
Nearly two years on from that World Cup statistic, VAR has endured a tough reception from professionals and fans around the football world.
It’s clear VAR technology is ‘the future of football’ (Bloomfield, 2017), but if decisions continue to be contentious, will that future be short lived?
