ControVARsial
“Europe’s Top 5 leagues should do away with in-person referees and rely solely on VAR,” said no one ever.
During the 2020–21 Premier League season, 128 goals and/or decisions were affected by the Video Assistant Referee. This number included 42 disallowed goals, 34 awarded goals, and 29 awarded penalties.
Adopted by the English first division at the start of the 2019–20 season, VAR was met with immediate controversy.
The technology gives central referees the ability to have decisions double-checked by a third party before perhaps seeing replays themselves if they need to see an incident again from different angles.
While basketball and American football use similar systems without complaints, a free-flowing sport like soccer was certain to see problems with the introduction of such a technology.
Besides argumenta ad passiones against VAR such as “being unable to celebrate goals immediately” and that “it takes the passion out of the game,” there are some logical arguments about drawbacks regarding its use in sport.
VAR Stats
Kevin Parvizi described just how much time VAR wasted at the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Women’s World Cup, and how often it was used in each of the 52 matches played during each tournament.
Ultimately, Parvizi determined that there were:
- An average of 7.1 checks in men’s games (One VAR check every 12:40)
- An average of 10.28 checks in women’s games (One VAR check ever 8:45)
- A 63% chance a VAR review was conducted per game
As only .63 of the VAR checks ended with a review, a total of 6.47 & 9.65 checks didn’t need to happen in each game. That wasted time could’ve been spent allowing the natural flow of the game to continue.
The accuracy of the calls made increased from roughly 93% in 2018 to 98.5% in 2019. By this metric, VAR implementation was successful but still, controversy surrounds it as in league-style play some teams have dropped points as a result of botched calls.
The final results of the 2019–20 Premier League season could have been drastically different if VAR wasn’t used — in fact, clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United would have finished 3 places higher than they did that season while Tottenham Hotspur would have finished four positions lower than they did.
After each season since VAR has been implemented, some critics have spoken out against the rules and how there needs to be change implemented if VAR is going to stick around for the long haul.
Abridged Rules
One of the biggest issues to persist throughout the seasons is offside calls.
Over the course of the past two Premier League seasons, a total of 81 goals were affected by VAR (either awarded or ruled out) — with a whopping 66 goals being ruled out.
Goals ruled out for offside: 34
Goals awarded after incorrect offside: 8
Goals ruled out for offside: 32
Goals awarded after incorrect offside: 7
A player is deemed offside if, at the moment the ball is kicked, any part of their body that they can score with is behind the last defender (not including the goalkeeper in the net.) This rule exists to ensure attacking players don’t just stand by the opposition net and wait for the ball to be heaved up the pitch so they can score.
VAR did a great job of making close offside calls easier to make but it was ridiculous seeing goals called off due to a player’s toe being a millimeter over the computer generated line.
In regards to the offside rule, the Premier League has recently implemented two changes:
- Thicker lines
- The point of the body where offside calls are made
The original lines used by VAR’s offside checks have been thickened to avoid any instances where a player is deemed offside because their toe is slightly over the line. This change will benefit the attacking team in a given scenario.
The point of the body where offside calls are made has been moved to the bottom of the armpit. This change will help avoid scenarios such as when Leeds United’s Patrick Bamford was flagged for offside because he was pointing where he wanted his teammate to place the ball.
The bottom of the armpit was deemed the point where offside calls are made because players are not permitted to score with their hands or arms. Therefore any ball touching from the armpit to the tip of the fingers would
A player can only be offside if a body part they can score with is past the last defender — thus any point from the base of the armpit to the tip of the finger cannot lead to a player being penalized for being offside.
Penalties were another frustrating topic during the first few years VAR was used. Before the 2019–20 season, even the slightest contact would result in a penalty. This led to attacking players forcing contact to draw fouls.
After a record 124 penalties were awarded during the 2020–21 Premier League season, the rules were changed to benefit defenders. Contact must now be substantial enough to impede the attacker from continuing their attack and the attacker can’t simply drag their leg or direct their body into the defender to force contact.
Where does VAR go from here?
Inevitably, calls will be made this season that are met with confusion and backlash by football fans globally.
The most controversial VAR call this season was during the West Ham v. Manchester United clash on September 19. Cristiano Ronaldo was taken down by West Ham’s Kurt Zouma in the box but referee Martin Atkinson decided it wasn’t penalty-worthy because Ronaldo dragged his foot into Zouma’s outstretched leg.
Under the new rules, Ronaldo, the attacker, looked to force contact with Zouma, the defender, to win a penalty. However, watching the incident again shows just how blurry the line between penalty and no-penalty can be.
As football fans, we hope that technology like VAR can be fine-tuned so we can see more accurate calls with minimal controversy.
