After several calls from a lesser majority of football fans, coupled with the huge success of the goal-line technology (that has gradually become a major decision making system in football), The Video Assistant Referee System was adopted into football as another major milestone in the sport and its efforts to adopt the intelligence of technology to help referees make decisions on the field of play. The International Football Association Board (IFAB); the body that determines the Laws of the Game, approved the use of video referees in trials during its June 2016 meeting.
The VAR was trialed live in August 2016 with a United Soccer League match between two Major League Soccer reserve sides. Ismail Elfath, who was the match official of the trial game reviewed two fouls during the match and, after consultation with video assistant referee Allen Chapman, decided to issue a red card and a yellow card in the respective incidents. Video reviews were introduced the following month during an international friendly between France and Italy. The VAR has since been in its trial stages, being trialed in last year’s Confederations Cup in June, the Bundesliga, Serie A and is gradually being fused into the English game making its debut in a friendly between the Three Lions and Germany in November last year and more recently, in the FA Cup last weekend. The controversies and the talking points concerning the VAR are growing by the day and in this piece we examine what the VAR system is and its strong ends and weak points.
The VAR System Explained.
The VAR system as its name suggests is also an officiating referee during games but will be handling the video reviewing aspect of officiating. The VAR is made up of a three-man team; the Video Assistant Referee (who is in most cases a current or former referee), his assistant and a replay operator (mostly a purely technical guy). The VARs are normally given a special part of the stadium called the video operation room which basically is an office made up of large banks of monitors that reveal incidents that happen on the pitch at different angles and aspects. This three-man team sit in this room throughout the game, watching and monitoring events on the field by analyzing video replays of relevant and match changing incidents. These relevant incidents are
Goals; Analyzing whether there was an infringement in the buildup to the goal
Penalties; Determining whether the correct decision was made in terms of the incident being a penalty or non-penalty.
Red Cards; Determining, just like in the case of the penalties, whether the correct decision was made. Red card or non-red card incident.
Mistaken Identity; Clarify which players should be cautioned or sent off and correct the referee in cases of mistaken identity.
The VAR system operates on a three-step process of judgment (reviewing the incident, advising the referee in the center of the match and the decision making-which is purely up to the referee). The VAR’s main duty is to review and advice or recommend but the decision thereafter lies in the hands of the referee alone.
The Controversies.
It is actually a given fact that, there would be controversies surrounding a change in the normal way of doing things and that is a natural process and this case is no exception. While the officials and some football pundits are applauding the initiative, football fans are furious with this development. The supposed ‘few minutes’ that the referee takes to consult and review the incidents through the VAR has been said to be disrupting the flow of the game and given that one of the qualities of a good referee over the years has been keeping the game in its full flow without many distractions, the VAR is a big time waster and will make football boring to viewers at times.
There is also another school of thought that insists that unfairness is part of the beauty of the game and the VAR is going to rob football of the beauty. This school of thought points out that the unfairness of this game contributes to the entirety of the game from discussions in the studio by pundits all the way down to pub by fans. Take for instance, a team lost the ball in the opponent’s penalty box and should have been awarded a penalty but the appeals were turned down by the referee only for their opponents to break on the counter attack and score to win the game. Imagine the discussions and headlines this scenario will bring; the interesting conversations, the newspaper headlines, coaches and player reactions and all. These issues get fans talking for a whole week before the other week of league action is back on and is a major contributor to the way the game is enjoyed by everyone even if there is no action on the pitch. This group even argues that, not all incidents would be reviewed and have questioned the credibility and fairness of the system. The question still remains that, at what point does an incident become more relevant than the other.
Another issue is that by the introduction of VAR, what happens to the trust and credibility of the referees. Fans have said that the introduction of the VAR clearly points to the fact that, FIFA do not trust the referees to make good decisions when it comes to game changing incidents on the pitch. The general consensus is that, if FIFA is taking away the referees’ power to be able to totally decide on hard decisions especially in games of high importance, then why then is there even a need for referees.
Much recently, there have been calls by fans about how the reviewing process is only viewed by the officials and fans have said that does not in any way make the system a fair one especially to those in the stadium watching from the stands. Even though viewers at home have the luxury of witnessing what went wrong or not in the form of replays, spectators in the stadium are kept in what seems like long moments of suspense while the referee and his VAR assistants review the incident. There have been calls to project these things on the giant screens in stadiums to allow fans to also know what is happening behind the scenes.
The Defense
FIFA president, Infantino speaking about the progress of the implementation of the system after it was used at the Confederations Cup last year, said that the system is surely going to create a fairer environment for the sport to run smoothly without controversies that could easily be avoided. Speaking on the issue after the Confederations Cup, Infantino; who is a big fan of the VAR system, reiterated that, the system even –though imperfect- has been a huge success. He added that, during the tournament in Russia, the VAR made six game changing decisions in addition to settling 29 different incidents in only the group stage alone. Infantino stated that the Confederations Cup would have been much different and less fair than it would have been. Infantino’s and FIFA’s main argument has been that no matter how football stakeholders see it, the VAR is being implemented to bring the sport to a point of transparency.
FIFA has also stated that in acknowledging that the referees are human and are bound to make mistakes, the VAR would provide a different and much more credible eye to help make decisions on the field. They have rebuffed the claims about taking away the credibility of referees but have said that the system will rather empower referees given that the final decision lies in the hands of the referee. Pierluigi Collina, the legendary referee who now heads up FIFA’s refereeing committee, is quoted as saying “We are in a sort of work in progress,” the Italian said. “We see the very positive result we had but we are aware that we can improve. This is normal.”
The VAR’s biggest test is in the upcoming World Cup in Russia this year.The referees, coaches and technical teams, players and fans alike would expect FIFA to correct the discrepancies in the system and address the pitfalls in the implementation of the VAR to allow for a tournament without controversy.
Brazil went into the 1962 world cup in Chile as defending champions with their star players Gharrincha and Pele in the form of their lives and with some experience. They were the favourites in that tournament. However, when Pele got injured in the second group game against the Czech Republic, Brazil’s defense of their trophy was in somewhat doubt. Gharrincha however stood up and produced an extraordinary performance and all but single-handedly won that world cup for Brazil. His 5 goals in that tournament included a brace in both the quarter finals and the semi finals. If his performance in 1958 was world class, then the one of 1962 was simply out of this world. He won both the golden ball and the golden boot in that tournament. In Pele’s own words, “It was as if an angel had come down from heaven and touched him”.
Thousands of fans flooded the Maracana for his funeral to pay their last respect to a true legend of the game. Several monuments including busts, statues and scupltures have been built all over Brazil in remembrance of him. The home team’s dressing room in the Maracana has also been named after him and in 2013, Brazil named the stadium in Brasilia ,the ‘Mane Gharrincha stadium’, built ahead of the 2014 world cup. A fitting tribute to ‘The angel with bent legs’. Only two people in history have won the world cup ‘single-handedly’, Maradona in 1986 and Gharrincha in 1962. Gharrincha would always be remembered as the player who United several factions of fans in Brazil and who was simply ‘El Porto d’alegre’ or ‘The joy of the people’.
The Green Turf 