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How Video Review is Wrecking Footy

VAR sounded like a good idea at the time, but it’s messing things up — bigly so.

By Hamish AlexanderPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Image by Roland Steinmann from Pixabay

They call it VAR, and you can be forgiven for wondering what the (heck) that is.

Technically, VAR it stands for Video Assistant Referee, which you probably know better as “the guy in charge of video replay.” (And it’s almost always a guy.)

VAR is a big deal in the sports world because, as anyone who follows the professional leagues knows, referees are often not up to the job.

VAR — video replay to you and me — was created to correct what they call “clear and obvious errors” on the part of match officials, which shouldn’t happen but do. Think what might happen, for example, if you became known for “clear and obvious errors” at your place of work. How long would it be before your boss walked up to you and said, “We’ve decided to go in another direction.”

In the official lingo, VAR is “an assistant referee in association football who reviews decisions made by the on-field referee with the use of video footage and headset for communication specifically in order to minimize human errors causing substantial influence on match results.”

In other words, preventing shouting matches, fistfights, head-butts, bench-clearing brawls and, in the most excitable of occasions, riots in the street.

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

Video replay has become more prevalent in TV sports in recent years as the NFL, NHL and other major leagues have decided that following the rules is preferable to chaos, and that if a referee blows a call — for whatever reason — it’s better to settle any outstanding issues and disputes by taking another look at what actually happened, and ruling accordingly.

See? Simple. Nothing to it.

It was only a matter of time before VAR was adopted by association football (soccer) in the European leagues, specifically the UK Premier League — and, naturally, the result has been utter chaos. If there’s any way to mess something up, even something designed to clear up messes, soccer’s governing bodies FIFA and IFAB will find a way.

Image by Adriana Gois from Pixabay

Teething problems, the game’s governing bodies have said, following a spate of blown calls in the replay booth. Growing pains. Some people will complain over just about anything.

Sounds good, but in practice it never quite seems to work out that way. Just this past week, Manchester City manager and former Barcelona FC and Bayern Munich legend Pep Guardiola — think Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry and Bill Parcells all wrapped into one — came apart like a rag doll after Southampton keeper brought down Manchester wunderkind Phil Foden in a leg trip that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a MMA cage match. The referee, officials watching on in the Premier League VAR booth at Stockley Park in London, and assistant referees standing on either side of the field inManchester decided the transgression wasn’t worthy of a penalty.

You don’t really need a translator to know what Guardiola said in his post-match TV interview, but it makes for colorful reading just the same. (This, by the way, is in a game Guardiola’s side won 5-2.)

The abridged, edited version goes something like this:

Referees are professionals, they have to do their jobs. . . . The penalty [decision] is incredible. The goal from Fulham disallowed against Tottenham [last week]: I don’t have anything against Tottenham but I don’t understand how it was disallowed. I don’t understand Arsenal not getting a penalty against Burnley [on Saturday] — I don’t have anything against [Burnley]. There are things I don’t understand.

“Maybe one day they will explain with VAR and the hands. Hopefully one day they can explain what is going on. Today the penalty — oh my God. [Name calling], the referee, cannot see it? OK. The linesman cannot see it, but if the VAR can’t see it, it is because— oh my God.

Earlier in the week, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, weighed in with his own opinion, which, because he's the head of soccer's governing body, carries no small amount of weight.

Put simply, and reduced to its basics, Infantino’s message went something like this: VAR is great! Stop complaining! VAR has done so much for the game! It has made the game better — bigly so! Stop whining!

Football — soccer to Americans and Canadians — is a free-flowing game with relatively few interruptions, unlike American football. The unbroken flow of play is one of the reasons why the Beautiful Game has proven such a tough sell with the US TV networks. It’s hard to squeeze two- and three-minute commercial breaks into the broadcast if the game is constantly flowing and there’s no break in the action until halftime.

The NFL, on the other hand, is one long town-hall meeting. The two-minute warning is often a prelude to 15 minutes of stops and starts, all the better to squeeze those all-important commercials in. Somebody has to keep the lights on, and even when Covid-19 protocols allow paying fans to see the game in person, that in itself is not going to pay Tom Brady's salary.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

One of the most, erm, vocal complaints about VAR is how long it takes to reach a decision, any decision — entire minutes, in some cases.

Must it really take so long? How long does it take to watch TV, anyway?

In the meantime, the players stand around on the field, look bored and make small talk — or else harangue the referee into making a call, one way or the other.

What's taking so long? Back up the video and have a second look, or even a third. How hard can it be?

Offside calls, hand balls, loose elbows, tripping, the occasional headbutt and mayhem in the penalty area have all become cause for the dreaded video review. Some Premier League games are starting to stop and start like an NFL game.

That wouldn’t matter so much, in theory, except that officials in the replay booth keep getting it wrong.

Factor in slow-motion replays — everything looks worse in slow motion; even a stray arm can look like premeditated murder — and a clear picture can get fuzzy in a hurry.

Infantino is having none of it, though, not even the delays and disruption part. Fans being made to wait for video replay decisions “adds another layer of adrenaline,” he said this past week — which is somewhat disingenuous because the strict definition of adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands that increases the rate of blood circulation and “prepares muscles for exertion.”

Well ... that may be true. In theory. In practice, though, there’s an argument to be made — and I’m making it! — that waiting for video replays in TV sports isn't exactly an adrenaline rush. If anything, it's the opposite.

Infantino again: “I think that VAR is giving and bringing more justice to the game. Itʼs making the game more clean, itʼs helping the referees in taking correct decisions. If maybe it takes away the joy of some, it gives the joy to others when a decision is changed. So the joy if you win a game is still there. You will not hear me say anything negative about VAR. Justice is everything.

Justice! There you have it. Even if the video replay assistant gets the call hopelessly wrong, in other words, a certain kind of rough justice has been meted out.

FIFA's president then added that the board is changing the handball rule — again — and that offsides will soon become semi-automated, by which I can only assume AI will be given yet another opportunity to mess with normal, everyday rituals and routines. When did kicking a ball around a grassy field get so complicated all of a sudden?

When the NHL brought in video replay, many years ago now, there were complaints that “expert” adjudicators in the broadcast booth were taking too long, and all too often getting it wrong.

I’m reminded of something a renowned hockey commentator and sports columnist in my home town suggested at the time: The ideal replay analyst is a couch potato, beer in one hand and a ginormous bowl of popcorn in the other, navigating the remote between already occupied hands, and rendering a judgment faster than it takes to open a new can of beer.

That guy would make a decision in a heartbeat, without the need for a United Nations summit meeting by Zoom or full-on rules seminar.

No fuss, no muss. The ball is either in or it’s out.

The goal is either offside or it isn’t. A goalkeeper flinging out a “stray leg” at an attacking forward is still a penalty, and a headbutt — even if provoked — is still against the rules.

Hey, sounds good to me. Pass the popcorn. And stop with the endless tinkering with the game by men in suits who’ve never kicked a ball in their lives.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

There are some great Facebook groups for Vocal writers like Vocal Media Creators Hub (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1511757102346213) if you want to be more active in the community.

Vocal Media Creators Hub and other sites like it are great places to share and get feedback about your work, or find encouragement when you’re struggling with a piece.


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About the Creator

Hamish Alexander

Earth community. Visual storyteller. Digital nomad. Natural history + current events. Raconteur. Cultural anthropology.

I hope that somewhere in here I will talk about a creator who will intrigue + inspire you.

Twitter: @HamishAlexande6

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