Last night during the FA Cup tie between Brighton and Crystal Palace, English football was given its first taste of the video assistant referee (VAR) system. Too long in the making? You're damn right.
VAR can only be used by the referees, unlike cricket and tennis where the sporting participants are able to challenge decisions and force a video referral.
As for how it will be used during matches, VAR won't be used during every single scenario on the pitch, leaving much of the control with the onfield referee. It, however, be used for incidents involving -
- goals
- penalties
- straight red cards
- mistaken identity
- the latter would have saved Kieran Gibbs being sent off instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back in 2014.
For their to be an overturned decision, it HAS to be 100% obvious that the referee has made an error. Any doubt and the decision remains as it was originally deemed to be, a similar rule that the NFL enforces. You could look at it as the equivalent of the umpire's call in cricket.
"What the referee doesn't have the option of doing is saying is 'I don't know if that was a penalty or not, I'll look at the replay'," - stated International Football Association Board technical director, David Elleray. This means that referees have to keep refereeing matches as they would prior to the technology.
As it was always going to be when something this major was debuted, VAR didn't need to be used as extremely as we may have expected, but that doesn't mean the game didn't benefit from it's involvement.
It's use wasn't obvious, but VAR was used during the game on at least 11 separate occasions to simply check if an error has been made and to ensure that the flow of the game could continue.
It's moment in the limelight came in the final few minutes when Glenn Murray bundled in a late winner for Brighton. There was suspicion that the ball had been turned in via the hand of the Seagulls striker, but after the VAR was consulted, it was determined that the goal could stand.
In the long run, I think we all hope that controversial decisions in big games will be nearly non-existent, along with the constant complaints thrown at referees from managers, players and pundits alike. If the decision has been reviewed by someone with all the camera angles, how can it be contested?
It's about time football joined the 21st Century - and every other sport in the world - and got technology. The FA Cup's Third Round Replays will all now have VAR used in them. Let's hope we aren't too far away from use in all football.
What do you think about the use of technology in sport? About time or should be left pure? Share and comment.
You can read my other blogs at ScriptEye and I Can't Write Words here.
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