Technology plays a crucial role in the officiating of professional sporting events. Before the implementation of the 24 second shot clock in 1954, NBA basketball games were low scoring affairs where teams would make a shot, then hold onto the ball the rest of the game. One of the biggest innovations in the NFL, instant replay, evolved from the Replay System first used in 1986, allowing fans to see all angles of every play for the first time.
Not all sports leagues have been so eager to embrace technology. The English Premier League, as well as other European soccer leagues, continue to officiate matches the traditional way. Line judges and referees rely on their intuition to make calls, completely unassisted by replay systems or different camera angels. While other large European league have decided to test technologies like VAR and goal line cameras, the Premier League is hesitant to adopt these technologies.
Video Assistant Referee is a new technology that allows an assistant referee to review the head referee’s decision on any type of call using video footage. In soccer, the clock never stops and any time that is wasted on injury or substitution is added on at the end of each half as extra time. Many believe that the introduction of reviewable calls will destroy the fluidity of the game.
Controversies with VAR started earlier this month when a questionable decision was made in a Portuguese league match. VAR was set to review a missed offside call that led to a goal. Even though the player was offside, VAR could not disallow the call because the camera was obstructed by a supporters flag. Without VAR’s ruling, the ref could not overturn the call.
Criticisms of VAR have only grown since then, this week it was involved in another incident. In a FA cup round 5 matchup, Manchester United had a goal disallowed after Juan Mata was controversially called offside, despite the lines appearing to be crooked.
FIFA is set to decide next month whether they will support the VAR system. It is a big decision that will have a huge implication. The FIFA World Cup in Russia kicks off in 2018 and should FIFA decide to go forward with VAR, we will certainly see if it preforms without any further issues.
https://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/EnglishPremiership/is-var-ready-for-premier-league-rollout-20180219
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-clubs-var-deadline-12048614
This idea is very interesting. As a soccer player growing up, I have been frustrated by offsides calls and poor officiating on many occasions, as I am sure everybody else who has played a sport has as well. I agree with some of the people who say that the reviewing of plays during a game might “destroy the fluidity of the game,” but at the same time, if someone gets called for a penalty they did not commit and it changes the outcome of the game, that is very frustrating for the audience to see as well as for the players to experience.
I think that since we have this new technology that can be more accurate than a human, why would we not use it? It makes the game more fair and consistent, with less poor calls being made that impact the game in a negative way. After reading through some other articles on VAR, I came upon one that had some interesting viewpoints on the topic of VAR in the future and the direction that FIFA is planning on taking officiating.
Very interesting article, thanks for the information!
https://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21584440-technology-and-sport-deployment-goal-line-technology-assist-football
I enjoyed your post:)
As I’m not a person who enjoy sports I’ve never heard of Assistant Referee (VAR) before. I searched about VAR after reading your post and I think it is really cool technology for sport!
It is possible to accurately judge what is hard to judge by a human eye in a sports game by watching a video record. It will reduce judgment ratio between each team. Before its use, officials had a millisecond to make a decision either way. Even thought their efforts they would be humiliated by media if the wrong decision was made. Thanks to VAR now, there are no complaints.
I think it is really good device.
This is link that is written about pros and cons of VAR.
http://lastwordonfootball.com/2017/12/11/video-assistant-referee-good-bad/