In recent years there have been many new technological additions to the footballing world. In 2016 goal-line technology was introduced into the top European leagues, where technology will be able to see if the whole ball has crossed the line in order to award a goal. The same year VAR (Virtual assistant referee) was introduced in the FIFA club world cup, and shortly after was adopted by most European leagues and competitions.
Goal-line technology was simple, if the whole ball had crossed the goal line then it is a goal, if not, no goal. But with VAR the problems are countless. Back when it was trialed at the FIFA club world cup it was obvious that there were still many problems, and since its implementation into major leagues and tournaments, these problems have not diminished.
VAR is a group of match officials that sit in a small box and review decisions made by the referee, with the aid of new technology. The VAR decision is then given back to the referee to decide the final decision.
The issue is not with the technology, it is how the referee and his officials are dealing with the technology and so a new system/process needs to be designed to iron out the flaws. Currently, referees are spending far too long making decisions about fouls, offsides, and goals leading to frustrated fans and players and often the wrong decisions are being made. Not only this but often the fans, players, and managers are kept out the loop when decisions are being made.
The amusing part about it is that VAR was introduced to make sure the right decisions are being made, and to try and reduce human interpretation on crucial decisions. Now referees and their officials are just spending longer making these decisions and still having to use their own opinion on a smaller more detailed scale.
Why do we need VAR? In the history of football, mistakes have always been part of the game. It takes teams countless attempts before they manage to break through and score a goal, so why is it now referees are not allowed to make the occasional mistake when players make them all the time. This is purely down to the stakeholders in the game now. There is so much money in football now, especially the English Premier league that these rich investors cannot afford games to be lost.
Every week there seems to be another controversial decision under huge scrutiny, from players, managers, pundits and the public in the English premier league. This makes you wonder how are there so many wrong decisions being made when this new technology has been introduced to eradicate this sloppiness. Whether this is red cards being shown when they should not be, or goals being disallowed for apparent offsides. This fast-paced, compelling football that European teams have prided themselves on for decades has now turned into stop-start disarray.
On the 2nd of November 2019, Liverpool played Aston Villa where striker Roberto Firmino was disallowed a goal because his armpit was offside. Now okay, technically he is offside here but on such a minute scale. Does this pose the question then is the technology being taken too seriously? Surely the football officials making these decisions can see how ridiculous this seems, that a goal is being disallowed by a matter of millimeters.
Even though the technology itself is not at fault for this wrong decision. The technology is not 100% accurate, as the virtual lines produced to determine offsides are not calibrated to the exact point when the assisting player touches the ball. So surely this means that there must be some margin of error used.
On the 22nd of February, Chelsea faced Tottenham Hotspur where red card decision was over-ruled by the VAR. the decision was an obvious dangerous tackle and then post-match decided for VAR it should have been a red card.
These are just a few of the many wrong decisions that have been made by the VAR officials and suffice enough evidence that there needs to be a change. Not only for the sake of the players and managers but for the supporters who are paying money to come and see more being spent on decision making than football being played.
Finally, there needs to be a change for the referees, because often they are not at fault, yet they take the brunt of the abuse when most of the time the wrong decisions are down to the VAR. Referees are constantly being undermined by Technology and made to look incompetent. It is now getting to the point where players are losing respect for the referees, making it difficult for referees to communicate to players. Footballers are now complaining to VAR about decisions rather than the referees.
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