The introduction of the Video Assistant Referee in football is a controversial decision. VAR was firstly introduced in the 2016 MLS game. The introduction of the video assistant referee VAR for specific incidents involving match-changing situations. The VAR team will support the referees from a centralized video operation room located at the broadcast Center. The team consists of a video assistant referee and three assistant video assistant referees.
Additionally for replay operators will select and provide the best angles from all relevant broadcast cameras plus two additional offside cameras. In addition to feeds generated from the video operation room will be distributed to the venue. The VAR output includes all the angles being reviewed by the VAR team also the video operation room camera feed capturing all the action during a VAR review. The VAR team supports the decision-making process of the referee in four match-changing situations,
1. Goals and offences leading up to a goal
2. Penalty decisions and offences leading up to a penalty
3. Direct red card incidents
4. Mistaken identity
Throughout a match, the VAR team is constantly checking for mistakes related to these four scenarios. They will communicate with the referee only for obvious errors or serious missed incidents. The referee can delay the restart of play at any time to communicate with the VAR team and will signal this by pointing to his ear. Once the VARs or the referee decide an incident is reviewable the referee would initiate an official review by signalling the outline of a TV screen.
The referee will then either make a decision based on the information received from the VAR team or personally review the incident at the referee review area. An information system is situated in the video operation room where a game authority staff member will have direct access to the VAR output and all referee communications. He/she is responsible for generating official VAR review information fires a networked touch tablet.
To ensure transparency within the VAR review process the tablet information will trigger the VAR are related match television graphics templates and produce messages on the web and venue-based commentary information systems. this all-new process will provide media rights licensees commentators and producers with updated and detailed information on the VAR review. Yellow messages will indicate there is or could be a delay in the match. Red messages will show VAR official review details and green messages will display the outcome of the VAR review. The host broadcast production teams will implement a picture-in-picture solution to help explain the complete story.
Once the official review signal has been made the video operation room camera can be inserted and the screen graphic will explain which of the four defined match-changing decisions is under review. Depending on the review scenario the referee may elect to review them in question at the referee review area. The match production team will show the output of the VAR replay line showing the viewers exactly what the referee is watching. To conclude the process a graphic will be inserted clarifying the outcome of the review. Once the referee has made the final decision a full-frame graphic slate explaining the outcome of the review will be inserted followed by the decisive replay from the video assistant referee.
There are some benefits of VAR but some people remember the good old days when we could celebrate a goal without having to wait five minutes to see if the striker's nose was offside. VAR was supposed to make football better so far it made some things worse. Not just inconsistent decisions and lengthy delays here are some more reasons why VAR is ruining football. Goal-line technology has been a great addition to football. it has it's a black or white decision,” did the ball cross the line or not?” the same can't be said for var though. many decisions in football are subjective. Whether it's a penalty or not is often down to interpretation. Those who wanted var thought it would solve all the game's problems. Sometimes it is created more problems. the managers often call for consistency. They hoped var would achieve this but all it's done is just shift the decision-making to the video referee. var gets decisions wrong too and it feels even more unfair than it did when mistakes were down to the referee's human error as if that wasn't bad enough.
The introduction of var and its robotic interpretations have led to the laws being applied much more harshly. slow-motion replays and multiple camera angles mean even minor infractions are being analyzed to death. Some decisions are just nonsensical. E.g., If the defender touches the attacker's shirt for half of the seconds, it’s a penalty.
No doubt VAR has improved the accuracy but it is inconsistent and unreliable. Managers and football fans are hoping there will be an improvement in future so that fewer controversies will happen and football game goes on with less complicacy.