Northern Ireland were on the wrong end of an awful refereeing decision the other night, in their World Cup play-off match against Switzerland, when they had a penalty awarded against them for handball. The fledgling VAR system was not in use, and so there was no opportunity for the decision to be reviewed and changed.
If you are not aware of what VAR is, it stands for Video Assistant Referees, and it is slowly being introduced by FIFA to try to get more correct decisions. It has been used in the USA and in Australia, more recently in Italy, Germany and Portugal, and was available for the first time in the UK at the England v Germany match last Friday night, although it was not called into use during the match.
It is totally separate from the after-match reviews and retrospective punishment for violent conduct missed by the match officials, and punishment for diving for penalties, that we have only just started to understand and accept.
Briefly, the incidents to be reviewed by VAR are
1. Goals. Goals awarded by the match referee may be chalked-off after review.
2. Penalties. Penalty decisions may be reversed…both ways!
3. Red Cards. Decisions to award or not award a red card, may be reviewed and changed.
4. Mistaken Identity. Making sure that the correct player gets the card.
Probably the biggest drawback is that these various reviews are going to take place in real-time, and we football fans are not used to it. Cricket is very much a stop-start game and reviews on wickets does not cause the game to stall. Rugby Union is more of a stop-start game than football and so waiting for a review on a try is not such an issue. But with football we expect play to be continuous and it will be difficult to accept the hold-ups. Even now, if we think a player is feigning injury, we get annoyed that the flow of the game is being interrupted. Goal-line technology works because the video analysis only takes a matter of seconds, and the question only needs a yes/no answer.
But just as video killed the radio star, I believe that VAR is going to be a total game-changer, and will become the most significant law change in football for many years. It will be confusing to most and argued about by everybody in the game, but if it is used sensibly, and for me it is a massive if, then more important decisions will be correct, and many of the injustices that we can all painfully bring to mind could be almost eliminated.
So, are we really ready for VAR to force us to sit on our hands for a couple of minutes to give the officials the best chance to make the right decision? If you were to ask some Northern Ireland fans yes or no, I think I know what answer you would get!