The current VAR situation is stale and inefficient and needs some design thinking to streamline how it is handled on matchday. With the referee and VAR officials still being unclear on decisions even with this introduction of VAR, it is obvious that human interpretation possibly has to be taken out of the equation altogether.
So where can designers come in? I realize that this does not pose the most obvious design opportunity, but something that I learned Fromm Stuart baileys talk was that design does not always have to end up with a product, if you flip the design process on its head and create a system or service, the products may come later, and here I believe this is what is necessary.
Can we somehow create a system that will marry VAR and referee where they will work in harmony and help each other create the most efficient running of the match, or will they always contradict and undermine each other? Tennis, rugby and various other sports have managed it so why can't football?
Or are we at a stage where we should be looking past human referees and officials? Should we be looking at technology referring the whole game, and removing human interpretation completely and no human interference? But how far does this go, will we then introduce robot players, as human players aren’t up to scratch?
Or should be we saying so to technology, it has no place in football. Footballers are using the Scooby-doo villain reference saying 'we would have got away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids', and are they right, should the small details be left untouched as they are all part of the game.
If it were down to my personal preference, I would do without VAR and technology in football. Football has been built on tradition, rivalry, and animosity, and quite often when a wrong decision is given this adds to the atmosphere of a match. Okay, this may not give the fairest results, but I think that is all part of the game and that possibly relying on technology to solve all of our problems is taking the life and soul out of the game.
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