VAR: Has it improved football or has made it worse ?*

[Mauser]

VAR. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be here to stay. But has it actually made football better or has it added another unnecessary layer of complication to the beautiful game?

We are having so many different cameras in the stadiums, showing us football from all possible angles, it would be wrong to not use them. It's frustrating if you watch a game from home and have a more clear view of the fouls than the referee on the field. Especially in large tournaments like Champions League or the Worldcup the stakes are so high that we should use all the technology we have to make the most accurate calls. The controversy from a wrongful counted goal, or a valid goal that was discarded and might change the outcome of the tournament is shedding a bit light on the whole sport. Video Assistant Referee is a good thing in my opinion and should be used more often. What I don't like is the long break it takes for the referee to pause the game, run to a TV and watch the whole thing on rewind. Why not have an additional referee watching the whole match on TV with more power? In football we have usually the head referee on the field, plus two assistant referees on the side lines and now the video assistant referee who should give all the necessary information directly to the head referee via radio. With the VAR help the number of wrong decisions by referee should be reduced a lot now.

[Pierre 2]

When I first heard VAR system I was totally against it. I was used to tempo of football. I felt like it is impossible to have that kind of system in nature of football. Although in my opinion its good at making football more "just" place. Especially considering the fact that gamblers can benefit from it. I don't want my or other teams to win matches without deserving it. VAR works in very ethical way and I liked it.

[Zilon]

Despite the delays and stoppages this VAR stirs up during matches it has improved the accuracy of referee decisions. Prior before this technology referees had a final decision and can be biased which made fix matches more rampant during those eras. Goal line technology and VAR has greatly improve our soccer experience and improved a high level of transparency during matches

[Boristhecat]

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VAR. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be here to stay. But has it actually made football better or has it added another unnecessary layer of complication to the beautiful game?

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Firstly, I think that VAR made the game better because football is a game of skill and not luck, and such a factor as "the referee made a mistake" which can be considered random here is superfluous. In addition, the fewer mistakes the referee makes, the less talk about the unfairness of the result and the fact that the game is “bought”.
Secondly, I will say that VAR is now absolutely inevitable even if it were harmful or useless. It’s just that due to progress now, viewers of broadcasts using replays understand the situation in 5 seconds, and if the obvious facts (what they see) constantly diverge from what decisions the referee makes (referee cannot physically see everything - there have been studies on this topic) then they simply will not watch this nonsense.

[iv4n]

Despite the delays and stoppages this VAR stirs up during matches it has improved the accuracy of referee decisions. Prior before this technology referees had a final decision and can be biased which made fix matches more rampant during those eras. Goal line technology and VAR has greatly improve our soccer experience and improved a high level of transparency during matches

As you say, despite the delays with VAR technology, referee decisions should be more accurate and fair... I think that VAR is needed, referees can't follow everything that happens on the field, while VAR enables an overview of the situation from multiple angles! I personally like it and it was about time we saw it in football! Also, we all know there's a lot of "faking" in football, some players like to "just fall"... so with VAR I think this will be reduced!

[mia_houston]

The history of VAR

Football’s first real brush with technology began at the 2014 World Cup, when goalline-technology was implemented into some of Europe’s biggest leagues. It came four years after the controversy over Frank Lampard's strike for England against Germany being missed by the officials: the goal was not given despite it clearly crossing the line.

Frank Lampard's disallowed World Cup goal was a pivotal moment in the future of technology in footballGero Breloer/AP2010
VAR was used in a major tournament for the first time in 2017 at the FIFA Confederations Cup. In the same year, the Bundesliga and Serie A became the first of the world's major leagues to take the plunge with La Liga and Ligue 1 following suit a year later. The Premier League bowed down to the inevitable and implemented VAR in 2019.

FOOTBALL NOW is a new show that brings to light some of the global game's biggest issues, challenges, and debates.

VAR. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be here to stay. But has it actually made football better or has it added another unnecessary layer of complication to the beautiful game?

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In this case, of course, technology has advantages and disadvantages including VAR technology which is currently applicable in football, as we know if VAR has been able to detect every time an offside occurs which the referee cannot see clearly and of course the use of VAR will at least minimize referee mistakes in making decisions, besides that with VAR, football becomes fairer and no club feels aggrieved by the referee decision, but still VAR also eliminates the excitement in football and often the referee stops the match when a team is on a counterattack only to check for possible violations so that the intensity of the game decreases.

[Cookdata]

If you pay close attention to some big games, like El Clasico in the Spanish League and Derby in the English Leagues, you'll notice that the referee rarely pays much attention to VAR since it kills the fun and freedom of football, unless it's clearly necessary. Look at the just concluded Champions League final match between Real Madrid and Liverpool. You'll see that the referee ignored several fouls that were too clear to warrant a stop and a decision, yet the game went on as if nothing had happened.

Personally, I like it because it makes it easier to make tough decisions without upsetting the crowd, but even then, tough final decisions are made anonymously by others, not by the referee, and also they allow them once in a while, if the referee cannot make the decision himself, then I don't know its primary purpose.

[Barcode_]

I think the implementation of VAR technology would surely help the referee to make better decision in game as they could watch what exactly happened in a game during certain moments. It would also minimize the chances of players diving in the penalty box in order to trick the referee to award a penalty to their team as the referee could always punish the players for diving after watching the VAR.

[Yogee]

Why do I smell a fixed match when I see a control room operated by their referees and judge whether the goal is clear or it is not clear and I think it gives a big chance for the referees to say it is a goal and it is not a goal.
The referees who are in the control room are not watching live the match but I do not know if their technology is very good enough to get every view on every corner side of the field.
If that so, I think they can see what is going on in the match and can give their opinion related to the goal.
But hopefully, the referees are clean from other things that can make the match looks controlled by them.

It's probably just the paranoid in you that thinks negatively of the improved VAR. There were wrong calls in the early implementations but I highly doubt it's match fixing. The review shows what happened from different angles and there are also coverage from media outlets with high tech equipments that we could use for comparison. There could still be controversial calls on tackles and fouls that could occur next season and beyond but less error on offsides and goal-line.

[Gozie51]

I would say to a large extent that VAR has helped the game to ensure that tricks by players on the game is curtailed, of course we have had goals scored with the support of the hand in the past and if it were to be this time around, those goals on contest would have been disallowed. For example the popularMaradona's "Hand of God" goal by Maradona is one and some other players have escaped this like Luis Suarez, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi to mention few. But looking deeply too on the good that VAR has come to do to the game, I have also seen some decisions taken from VAR that looks biase in my eyes and it takes away the glamour of the fact that it is a game and a physical game for that matter. To say the least on this, I believe that the Nigerian female team was pushed out of the tournament through VAR during the game between Nigeria and Morocco. In that game, I don't expect the two red cards served to Nigerian team to be fair and just and that made the team to play behind two men down. At least the first red card was not deserving yet second card came, the ladies played it out very judiciously down to extra time after the full 90 minutes before they eventually lost by a goal at the penalty kicks. So In as much as the VAR was introduced to reduce tricks it also can be used to stop a team from winning.

[Jackl87]

Football’s first real brush with technology began at the 2014 World Cup, when goalline-technology was implemented into some of Europe’s biggest leagues. It came four years after the controversy over Frank Lampard's strike for England against Germany being missed by the officials: the goal was not given despite it clearly crossing the line

VAR. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be here to stay. But has it actually made football better or has it added another unnecessary layer of complication to the beautiful game?

I definitely think that it is a good decision that the goal-line-technology is now used in professional football matches because there you have clear goal or no-goal decisions and this device helps the referee to know for sure if the ball was in or not. If the ball was over the line the referee immediately gets an alarm on his smart watch or whatever he is wearing during a game and there are no delays. So i definitely think that the goal line technology was a great thing to introduce to football.

I have mixed feelings about the VAR though. Football is about emotions and nowadays it is pretty weird when every goal gets checked automatically if it counts or not, because you can not be sure if you should really already celebrate once the ball is in the net. That is pretty weird to me.

[ethereumhunter]

Maybe the presence of VAR can help the referee find out whether there is a violation from a player or not so that the match can run smoothly without any cheating from players. But this technology may still need to be developed and put in more cameras to monitor every corner of the field well and follow players running here and there. That way, during the match, the referee in the control room can give a code to the referee on the field if a violation occurs.

[bitzizzix]

In terms of accuracy, VAR is very helpful in football, it is also very helpful for referees to review incidents that occur during a match, before they make a final decision.
Referees are human and it is impossible for him to make mistakes when he himself has to observe 22 players simultaneously during a match, and VAR helps them to re-examine incidents they missed to see in the first place, or simply make sure that their decisions are correct. right before making the last call.
and indeed the occurrence of VAR will result in the postponement of the match as long as the VAR occurs which will annoy the spectators, and also the players don't like it because they can no longer get away with flashy play, it will throw him away, I suspect the management doesn't like it for the same reason. If you have nothing to lose as to what the problem is, it just means that the results will reflect what really happened.
And whatever the reason, I think VAR is good for football and considering every CCTV case is accurate evidence that cannot be manipulated.

[KTChampions]

I think the implementation of VAR technology would surely help the referee to make better decision in game as they could watch what exactly happened in a game during certain moments. It would also minimize the chances of players diving in the penalty box in order to trick the referee to award a penalty to their team as the referee could always punish the players for diving after watching the VAR.

By the way, at the moment VAR has not led to a decrease in the number of dives (at least it seems so to me). Maybe penalties are awarded less often in such cases, but players who dive are not punished severely enough. In my opinion, the punishment for trying to cheat should always be at least a yellow card.
The other day, Neymar dived even in a friendly game, what a guy!  

[Joca97]

Football needs to improve always and VAR is the right thing that happened to football. We see how much VAR has to react on matches and it is important that the mistake of refs is lowered to minimum. Plus with the new thing in the ball that means the var is improving

[inanilujimi]

I honestly agree with the existence of var, making the match fairer in every decision made by the referee, by utilizing var technology the referee's job is easier to make wise decisions even though it must take a long time.

[arimamib]

When I first heard VAR system I was totally against it. I was used to tempo of football. I felt like it is impossible to have that kind of system in nature of football. Although in my opinion its good at making football more "just" place. Especially considering the fact that gamblers can benefit from it. I don't want my or other teams to win matches without deserving it. VAR works in very ethical way and I liked it.

VAR has really changed the football system to be fairer, I mean VAR can reduce controversial decisions from referees and embarrassing diving by players.
During the presence of VAR in the world of football, the job of the referee is easier and players do not need to argue with the referee over events that are not seen by the referee, because all events on the field are included in the VAR recording.
I like it, because VAR prevents decisions from referees that can be detrimental to one side.

[Daltonik]

To minimize refereeing errors, the VAR system should really have a positive effect, because it is resorted to in four main cases and they are especially sensitive for teams in these situations :
- in order to make sure that the goal was scored according to the rules;
- in order to verify the correctness of the assignment / non—assignment of a penalty;
- in order to eliminate an error when removing a football player;
- in order to identify the player who violated the rules.

But on the other hand, all this introduces additional delays in the game and sometimes knocks down the pace of a football match, and sometimes simply cancels a team's victory if a goal scored is canceled, for example.

[bekti3]

Even though there are some controversies about Var which is still one of the problems due to the system that sometimes crashes, the fact is that VAR is still very helpful, especially for several matches that have occurred and become controversial, for example when England had to be willing to swallow bitterly at the 2010 World Cup in Africa. due to the goal that should have been the equalizer at that time, the referee failed, even though in the replay it was clear that it was a goal or when Barcelona vs Chelsea in UCL 2009 it was clear that Barcelona had violated several times in the penalty box and the referee just let it go.

[Davidvictorson]

VAR. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be here to stay. But has it actually made football better or has it added another unnecessary layer of complication to the beautiful game?

VAR, the goalline-technology I believe is still in its earliest stages and just like any other innovative technology, there's both both room for improvement. Football lovers just have to accept the reality of VAR whether they love or hate it. I'm all in for tech that makes live better however, I must confess that I am in a love-hate relationship with it. When I watch some football match, I question whether the VAR has been hacked to favour a particular side especially when it's not the team I support. Soon there will be robot referees and we would ask again, has it improved football or made it worse?