Page 98 - Soccer360 Issue 104

THE TRIALS
OF TECHNOLOGY
FOOTBALL IS STILL IN ITS INFANCY WHEN IT COMES TO THE VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE (VAR), WRITES SUSY CAMPANALE, AND THE ONLY WAY TO DEVELOP IS TESTING IT IN THE REAL WORLD.
It seems not a week goes by without a manager or former player loudly complaining about VAR, insisting either ‘the game’s gone’ due to a soft penalty or that technology is not being used enough to clamp down on incidents. Like Goldilocks and her porridge,
VAR is either too hot or too cold, never quite just warm enough to be palatable to everyone.
The rules of football were first codified in 1863
and it is safe to say that an awful lot has changed since then. The development of the sport has sped up rapidly in recent years with the introduction of technology, going from the most basic goal-line sensors to semi-automatic offside and the Video Assistant Referee. That process is nowhere near over yet and every season we see the interpretation of the rules tweaked, usually in reaction to frustration during the campaign over certain decisions.
This is the only way that it can be realistically
done, testing these regulations in the real world of competitive, high-level football and seeing what
we can (mostly) all agree on being common sense approaches. If this means an alarming lack of consistency, lurching from everything is a penalty one year to stepping back the next, that is the fine-tuning I’m afraid we are going to have to keep going through. There is no autotune when it comes to football and we’re just going to have to do it
the old-fashioned way, like the tracking on a VHS player, until we find the sweet spot.
The same week we had Mikel Arteta declaring he was “ashamed” to be in England and the Premier League over a Newcastle United nudge not being enough to disallow the winning goal against his Arsenal side, we also had pundits raging at the Marcus Rashford red card and various handball penalties when Manchester United lost to FC Copenhagen in the Champions League.
The ultimate problem with VAR, and one that will always exist, is that people want decisions to be 100 per cent accurate, with everyone able to agree on them. When it comes to something as subjective as handball or a red card, that is impossible. There will always be some level of discussion around these incidents and people are going to have to accept that is the case.
So, considering the referee ultimately will decide anyway, what we can do is provide the officials with a little more leeway to make that judgment. When it comes to handball, it is fair to say that intent does not necessarily change the fact a ball was blocked by an arm from reaching its intended target. But what we can do is change the way that is penalised. I would suggest introducing an indirect free kick for
unintentional handball, whereas the more blatant handling offences can warrant a penalty. This could also help when it comes to an incident that is far from a goalscoring opportunity.
The current limitations on VAR were placed there to ensure games do not last for three hours, because if every dubious tackle, corner kick or free-kick was analysed with an on-field review, it would start to feel more like American football, stopping every
30 seconds. At the same time, ‘Clear and Obvious Error’ is a tough one to judge when perhaps even the referee would rather like to see that one again just to be sure.
It would be helpful to take from other sports, in
this case tennis, and give each coach a couple of challenges so he can call the referee to the monitor, even when the Video Assistant Referee does not.
If the challenge results in a change of the original decision, they get to keep it. That opportunity is lost if the verdict remains the same.
Intent has been all but wiped out of the IFAB rulebook to make decisions more consistent, but
at the same time it has hamstrung the referees
into needing to red card players for what was clearly clumsiness rather than malice. It might
lead to incidents being interpreted differently by every official, but it would at least feel a little more germane to the spirit of the sport.
As for offside, there’s no point complaining when technology gets so precise that millimetres are
used to disallow a goal. These are the rules, so introduce an ‘acceptable’ margin of error to give the striker the benefit of doubt and write that into the programme.
VAR is a gift to football. Now we all just have to agree on rules and regulations that use it while not losing the human element. It might lead to less consistency, but certainly not more arguments.
PSG captain Marquinhos (L centre) and teammates talk to referee Istvan Kovacs after Newcastle was awarded a second goal following a VAR check
Technology in football is still being tweaked and fine- tuned.
“THE ULTIMATE PROBLEM WITH VAR IS THAT PEOPLE WANT DECISIONS TO BE 100 PER CENT ACCURATE, WITH EVERYONE ABLE TO AGREE ON THEM”
Arsenal manager
Mikel Arteta heavily criticised VAR after his side lost to Newcastle in November.
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