FEATURE: VAR at the World Cup?

Video assistant referee (VAR) is sideline technology much like that seen in football or tennis. Recently, it has been making appearances in soccer. There have been instances of good and bad since its installation in various leagues. In March, FIFA officials must decide whether to implement the system for the World Cup in Russia. 

VAR has unquestionably made decisions in the world of soccer much simpler. For example, Chelsea were correctly disallowed an offside goal in the Carabao Cup. On paper, VAR solves a whole lot of problems. Referee mistakes have been a centerpiece in the soccer world ever since it was invented, and the officials have been made scapegoats by players and coaches for generations. With VAR, this kind of behavior goes away. Managers and players must critically analyze their performances in order to really see how they won or lost, and ultimately how to move forward.

Naturally, VAR has its critics. These people argue that it takes too long to get an analysis or decision from the booth, or that sometimes there isn’t a decision needed to be made. However what is interesting is that, often, the same people arguing against the system are the same individuals who are extraordinary upset when their team loses by an mistake from an official, and are quick to blame the refereeing. Very few fans understand how difficult of a job being a referee is. No matter what happens during the game, at the final whistle, chances are at least 50% of the players, staff, and spectators are going to hate you. Implementing VAR could take some of the burden off of referees during goals scored for example, leading to more thought through decision making on other incidents during the game. 

Granted, mishaps have occurred with VAR. Just look to Italy where a goal was disallowed due to the officials mixing up jersey colors. Or look to Portugal where a decision couldn’t be made because of a flag in the crowd covered the required view. However this is not commonplace. For the most part, VAR has improved the quality of decision making by officials, and nobody can say that having a more fair game is a bad thing for anyone. 

Decisions such as those in Italy have led leagues still without the technology, namely the EPL, to even reconsider whether they want it at all. I believe this to be a foolish thought. And it would be equally foolish not to implement the system in Russia. VAR has an accuracy of over 97%, and no league or organization should use examples of poor, even borderline corrupt officials, in their decision to use or not use the technology. Personally, I think that while VAR does potentially extend matches, breaking the action occasionally, it is so infrequent (extending games by an average of less than 60 seconds) that this point should be disregarded. 

The question at hand for FIFA officials then, is whether they want to risk a major misjudgment by a referee at a tournament where points are so few, and goal difference matters so much. Referee mistakes and mismanagements can make the journey to the next stage of the contest near impossible. Teams can recover from a mistake by officials during league play; they have plenty of games to make up for it. But at the World Cup? It should be a no brainer. VAR needs to be at the tournament. Period.