About VAR
VAR or Video Assistant Referee is used to help the referee on the field make calls he can’t see. VAR allows the Referee to talk to another Referee in a booth that can watch the play over again and help him make a decision on a call. VAR was originally only used in big tournaments like the World Cup and Champions League. VAR is similar to when in football a team challenges a call and they watch the video over to get the right call except VAR is used the whole game and doesn’t take as much time. VAR is new to all leagues this season.
What Calls Are VAR Used For
VAR is used for many different types of calls in soccer such as unclear fouls, red cards, offsides, handball goals and penalties. VAR is only used for unclear calls. It is not used for calls clear and obvious. VAR can always over turn a goal, which is why they tell referees to leave their offside flags down because they can always check it if the team scores. VAR makes the correct calls and brings the element of a fair game into the professional soccer world.
https://evs.com/en/news/spains-laliga-selects-evs-xeebra-system-major-league-wide-var-deployment
Why VAR is Controversial
Many people don’t like VAR because they say it slows the game down. After all the complaints they changed the rule. Now referees can no longer go over and watch the play again. They must listen to what the VAR official says. Many people say VAR is to correct. Many calls in all leagues this season have been very close offside calls that lead to goals disallowed. This has many fans upset. A total of 10 goals in seven games of the Premier League alone have been disallowed because of VAR ruling offside. VAR does make up for the human mistake on the field but it still has human error because a person is still in control of the calls. For example when they look for offsides with VAR they usually draw a line from the defenders shoulder to the attackers shoulder to determine offsides. This still has human error. With the new rule I forced many people believe that it takes the referees decision out of the game. After the introduction of VAR, it has been the talking point of the media.
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