Blatter was able to hold back the introduction of new technologies during matches organised by the FIFA. But luckily for us, the new technology was introduced during the world cup in Russia!

In this article I will explain how the VAR works, how many times it was used during the already played matches at the Russia 2018 world cup and my own opinion about it!
Of course, I am very interested what everybody else is thinking! So shout out your opinion!

Video Assistant Referee!

  • Lets start with the fact that the VAR, isn't one person. It is a team of 1 Video Assistant referee and 3 assistant Video Assistant Referees, all four of them supposes to be Top FIFA match officials! 13 referees are selected for this World Cup! They are assisted by 4 reply operators, who do select the best camera angles!
  • The VAR center is located in Moscow, and it is called the VOR (guess they ran out of better ideas). VOR stands for Video Operating Room. The communication between the VAR and head referee are done via a sophisticated fibre-linked radio system.
  • The VAR teams has access to all relevant broadcasts and have dedicated off side cameras at their disposal!
  • In contrast to what we think, the VAR doesn't make any decision. They do offer advice and assistance to the head referee during the game. It is his decision if he decides to follow the advice or not!
  • The public will be informed about the review process by hand signals of the referee and infotainment!

The VAR during the World Cup 2018!

We all remember the first time the VAR was being used. It was when Griezmann broke through and was tripped by Joshua Risdon, while the ref didn't want to appoint a penalty, he was adviced by the VAR to do so. After watching the potential tripping again, he changed his mind and awarded the penalty! (At the moment there never have been so many penalties awarded ever during a World Cup and yes the VAR is the main reason for this!)

But the VAR isn't always right!
You can more about it, in these articles!

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3533707/var-at-the-world-cup-a-timeline-of-the-tournament

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/22/var-at-the-world-cup-the-big-decisions-game-by-game

For sure the article by the Guardian is great to read, because they do hand out a points to the VAR :)

My opinion!

I am in favor!

I do think that the VAR adds some more fairness to the game! Obvious errors of the head referee on the field could be corrected while the game is still going on!
I also did notice less catch or wrestling in the penalty box during corners and free kicks! Which we can only applaud!

I always one of the opinion that one of the charms of football is that also the ref could make mistakes, which my mates and I could discuss for hours! I was afraid that this would not be possible anymore. But the discussion are getting to a higher level, where one now is against the VAR and where I am in favor!

Yes, the VAR doesn't spot all errors, even some obvious ones like the elbow of Ronaldo, the wrestling fouls on Harry Kany during England's first game, the foul on Mitrovic and so on!

We must remember that the VAR may only interfere when the ref made a clear and obvious error! So there is still a lot of room for interpretation from and the VAR team and the referee on the pitch! And of course like always all of us will have their own interpretation which will not necessarily follow the judgement of the VAR and ref!

There is still lots of improvements which can be made but we are heading the right direction! Maybe it is a good idea, to hand out 1 VAR call to both head coaches!

And you? What is your opinion?

Lets have a discussion about it! This is what Scorum is about! Sharing opinions and discussing different view points!

So let's hear it!

Cheers,
Peter