Three Years On, VAR is still Controversial

 

On the face of it, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) seems to engender about as much respect as an official in a professional wrestling match, i.e. none at all. However, that’s only because of the vast amount of controversy the system has stirred up since its introduction in 2019. The authority of VAR is central to the fair outcome of any football match it is involved in - so why does it seem so useless at the one job it has?

Football is more of a global sport today than it has ever been, so VAR is particularly visible as a technology. Streaming services have dramatically increased exposure to English football, with the Live Goals website offering scores and streaming, as well as results and match schedules. Inevitably, and regardless of how they are presented, many of these games are touched by the shadow of VAR.Live Goals cover almost every major league in Europe, including La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, but the English Championship and the Dutch Eredivisie seem to come up tops.

Accuracy

A quick look on Google News reveals several choice words that have been said about VAR just in the past week, including such descriptors as "bad game", "ruin", "controversy", and "absolute joke". The latter headline, from the Manchester Evening News, was referring to a recent match between Manchester United and Middlesbrough, in which a handball decision was ruled out by VAR.

Thus continues an almost weekly cycle that has colored the past three years of Premier League football. Unfortunately, for the fans who like to think that VAR has a special dislike for their team, all the evidence suggests that football is at least fairer for the video assistant. Whether it’s better is a rather more subjective matter, as games have lost some of their speed and fluidness. 

Research cited by Forbes suggests that the accuracy of referring decisions increases by 6% when VAR is consulted, from 92% to 98%. Other statistics online like to compare the Premier League before and after the introduction of VAR, which had correct outcomes at 82% before and 94% after. With that in mind, VAR would seem almost infallible - yet it’s difficult to ignore the volume of concerns. 

Conspiracy

One genuine problem involves defenders, which have perhaps been unfairly targeted by VAR. The assistant referee gives out sanctions for much less physical contact in the penalty area, which can make previously fair tackles appear especially heinous under VAR. This can mean that an aggressive defense might feel singled out compared to a cautious one.

Just to continue with the conspiracy theories, if the previous is true, strikers would also be “rewarded” for play-acting, something that Brazilian player Neymar made infamous at the 2018 World Cup when he spent a total of 14 minutes on the ground. The World Cup in Russia was notably the first tournament that used VAR. So, are those decisions truly accurate? We might never know.

So, to answer the question in the title - why is VAR controversial? For one, it relies on the input of humans to produce an effective decision. However, football fans are always going to question decisions that go against their own team, especially given that certain refs and certain clubs have historically been at odds with each other. A quirk of stats or not, there’s no denying that Arsenal rarely won with Mike Dean in charge.