VAR: Good or bad for football?
The recent World Cup was the first tournament to use video assistant referee (VAR) technology in full, but not without controversy. Does VAR kill the excitement of the game or make it fairer?
With the World Cup final between France and Croatia on July 15 tied at 1-1, referee Nestor Pitana had to decide whether to give France a penalty.
Croatian striker Ivan Perisic had appeared to handle the ball in his penalty area.
The Argentinian official did not give it at first but changed his mind after looking at video replays for about a minute off the pitch, with the help of the video assistant referee (VAR).
French striker Antoine Griezmann slotted home the spot-kick, sending France on their way to lift the trophy with a 4-2 victory.
The call was among a number of controversial incidents surrounding the use of VAR for the first time at football's biggest tournament, which ended last week.
But it will not be the last time fans are divided over it, with the Spanish La Liga and German Bundesliga among the major leagues that will use VAR when the season starts next month.
While the football fraternity here is mostly supportive of VAR, most said there is room for improvement.
GOOD IDEA
Mr M. Ganesan, 54, a fitness coach with world governing body Fifa and a qualified assessor for referees, said VAR is a good idea to help ensure all crucial decisions are made correctly, and that teams are not denied progress in tournaments if referees make mistakes.
VAR teams monitor the game on screens and communicate with the pitch officials. They suggest to the referee to review decisions should they feel he has made a mistake.
Mr Ganesan said: "Referees are human. No matter how intense our training, there will be mistakes, what VAR can do is to help minimise that."
Former Tanjong Pagar FC coach Patrick Vallee, 56, believes that VAR is a great help for referees as it provides additional time and information for them to make decisions.
"It was difficult for the referee to see at real speed the movement of Perisic's arm during the final. But with VAR, it is obvious and he can make the right decision," he said.
At the recent World Cup in Russia, there were 455 checks by the VARs in 64 matches and 20 VAR reviews.
Fifa, which organises the tournament, said previously the accuracy of game-changing decisions during the group stages was 99.3 per cent with the help of VAR, compared to 95 per cent of correct decisions taken initially.
Another point in favour of VAR, said Mr Vallee, was how it could be positive for football's image, given that it has earned a bad reputation for diving and play-acting.
He said: "The game will be cleaner and much more attractive to the public because it will become a habit for players to not cheat or dive to deceive referees."
Mr Paul Masefield, 47, managing director of Little League and a TV pundit, said one improvement he would like to see made to VAR is to allow for retrospective action against unpunished offences caught on video, such as playacting.
He said: "If players know they can be punished after a match, then they will stop the nonsense. Red cards and suspensions should be used."
Local football icon and national coach Fandi Ahmad, 56, said he prefers good preparation and tactics and hopes that such ugly behaviour can be eliminated with the help of VAR.
He said: "For example, Neymar. Lately his playing has become a lot of diving, all over the pitch. I like to see him play, but more and more he gets defenders booked. VAR has helped a lot in proving that these were wrong. But even with VAR, there are still defenders who pull others down and even wrestle in the box, which is ridiculous."
FRUSTRATING
Former national goalkeeper Lionel Lewis, 35, said pausing and playing on again made watching the games a frustrating experience, and he could see players pressuring referees to use VAR in the future whenever an incident occurs inside or near the penalty box.
Mr Ganesan suggested that referees start to jog towards the side of the pitch where the on-field review takes place, to help shorten the time taken to do a VAR review.
"As part of their courses, referees in training have to watch more than a hundred instances of potential handball incidents from various angles. This is to train them to be fast and consistent in their interpretation of such incidents," he said.
Singaporean Fifa referee Muhammad Taqi Aljaafari, 32, who was named Asean Football Federation Referee of the Year 2016 (Men), told TNP the trade-offs to ensure the right decision is made are worth it.
He said: "Although VAR checks disrupt the tempo, as a fan, as a coach, I think they want the right decision, especially in the penalty areas or for direct red cards. I think that is more important than the one minute of disruption.
"Of course, it affects the flow of the game, but this one minute can be added on at the end of the match."
Debates like the one over the Perisic handball incident should be part and parcel of football, said Mr Lewis, who works in Nanyang Polytechnic and remains unconvinced by the technology.
He disagrees with the penalty decision and said that without VAR, the play would have moved on as the referee had initially given a goal kick and waved it off.
He said: "Football is a game played by humans, so in my opinion, there should be human errors allowed. Sometimes referees make mistakes, it decides games. I think that is the spirit of football."
Former Lions striker Noh Alam Shah, 37, agreed that while there were positives to VAR, supporters will lose the chance to discuss issues after the match.
"That made past games exciting for both sets of supporters," the operations assistant at Komoco Car added.
Referring to Argentinian legend Diego Maradona's infamous handball goal in the 1986 World Cup, Thai League deputy chief executive Benjamin Tan, 41, said: "With VAR, I can say there will be no 'Hand of God' in future. So we lost that."
A typical set-up for VAR can vary from competition to competition. For the 2018 World Cup, the VAR teams were given access to 33 broadcast cameras, including eight super slow-motion cameras and four ultra slow-motion ones.
A pool of 13 referees were specially selected to be video match officials and each World Cup match was overseen by a team of four video referees.
While other sports like baseball, rugby, American football and cricket have all employed some form of video review much earlier compared to football, National Institute of Education senior lecturer Nick Aplin did not see that as an issue.
Dr Aplin, who researches sports history, said: "Now that (VAR) has happened in the World Cup, I don't think there'll be a good argument for taking it away. I don't think they'll remove it at that level. As long as they have the video equipment and the financial support, they'll continue."
As more countries look at implementing VAR, an important factor to consider is cost.
NOT FEASIBLE
It may not be feasible for some domestic leagues that do not have the resources for such a comprehensive system, said Mr Tan.
Thai League 1 used VAR during some of its matches this year. Their system taps on broadcast cameras, said Mr Tan, which helps to save money.
"We have to use a larger number of referees for each match and that will also come out to operating costs, so the budget will be higher, of course," he added.
He declined to reveal the cost of implementing VAR, citing confidentiality.
Portuguese newspaper A Bola reported that setting up VAR for Portugal's Primeira Liga cost €1 million (S$1.59 million), while Reuters said 12 of the 20 clubs in Brazil's first division had voted against VAR due to costs, which were said to be around 1 million Brazilian reais (S$354,000) per club.
Mr Masefield believes the use of VAR will end up taking over the game and cover more than the four scenarios it currently oversees.
He said: "As technology gets better, faster and quicker, then being able to use this system will help in all aspects of the game."
World Cup final penalty was not harsh decision: S’porean VAR
Even though he works in an air-conditioned room rather than on the football pitch, Mr Muhammad Taqi Aljaafari thinks it is more stressful being part of a video assistant referee (VAR) team than a referee on the field.
Mr Taqi, a Singaporean Fifa referee who worked at the Under-20s World Cup in South Korea in May last year, said: "As a VAR, you need to be on your toes and check 80 per cent to 90 per cent of incidents in a match, as any of them can potentially lead to a goal."
VAR can interfere in only four scenarios, including when a goal is scored. (See other report.)
Mr Taqi, 32, told The New Paper at the Jalan Besar Stadium last Friday that there is more pressure on VARs to make the right calls, since fans also see the same replays.
He was on the shortlist of referees for the Russia World Cup but did not go for the competition. Mr Taqi works in the referees department at the Football Association of Singapore.
Mr Taqi explained that the situations VARs can help check fall into two categories: Factual decisions, such as offsides; and the ones that need interpretation, such as fouls.
DELIBERATE HANDBALL
So if he were the referee on the pitch in the World Cup final, would he have given the penalty to France? Yes, said Mr Taqi, as it was a deliberate handball.
"If it happened outside the penalty area, would someone think it is a harsh decision? I doubt so," he said.
Acknowledging the importance of keeping the game flowing, he said there are protocols VARs have to follow.
"For instance, the VAR will interfere if an offside offence occurs in the build-up to the goal. As the VAR silently checks most situations, this will prevent the game from being stopped for every decision."
Mr Taqi pushed back against criticism that VAR technology would make the referee on the field a robotic mouthpiece.
"The final decision still lies with the referee. The VAR only recommends," he said.
Asked whether having VAR would take away the buzz of discussing controversial incidents after the match, Mr Taqi did not think so.
He said: "With so many goals coming from set pieces now, decisions to give fouls become crucial, and these are checked by VARs, who will interfere only if it is within the protocol criteria.
"At the end of the day, VAR is just another tool to enhance decision-making." - LIM MIN ZHANG
What is VAR?
VAR, or video assistant referee, typically refers to a team of match officials who review certain decisions made by the main referee during a football match.
This is done by looking at video replays of the incident using different camera angles, in real time and in slow motion.
VAR is currently applied in only four specific scenarios: goal, and whether there is any infringement in the build-up; penalty decision; direct red card; and mistaken identity in awarding a red or yellow card.
VARs need to be active and have similar match experience as the on-field referees.
If the VAR finds a potential clear and obvious error, this is communicated to the main referee by the head VAR.
The main referee can maintain or change the decision based on the VAR team's input.
He can also conduct what is called an on-field review (OFR) and rewatch video footage of the incident on the sidelines at a designated viewing area.
A VAR review can be triggered by a request from the referee on the pitch or by the VAR team, and play is allowed to be stopped to reverse a decision or to conduct an OFR.
EPL
While the English Premier League voted against introducing VAR in the upcoming season, other leagues and competitions around the world have implemented the technology to varying degrees of success.
VAR was tested in the Netherlands as early as 2012, with the Australian A-League being the first to use it in a top-flight professional club competition last year. This was marred by a software glitch that saw the VAR system - provided by technology company Hawkeye - go dark for 30 seconds in the grand final and fail to overturn an offside goal that won the game.
VAR was introduced into Thai football during its Champions Cup in January this year. The first VAR decision was also made during that game, catching a player elbowing another player off the ball, which resulted in a red card.
Thai League deputy chief executive Benjamin Tan told The New Paper: "That actually determined our decision to use VAR for the league as well."
VAR is being used in two to four games every match week, with two VAR referees overseeing the match.
Mr Tan said: "It has gone down well with the clubs... We have fewer complaints and they are more satisfied with the referees' performances."
Four key VAR moments during the 2018 World Cup
Brazil 2 Costa Rica 0 (group stage)
Referee Bjorn Kuipers had initially awarded a penalty kick after Brazilian forward Neymar fell to the ground dramatically in the penalty box. VAR flagged the incident and Kuipers reversed his decision after reviewing the replay.
Iran 1 Portugal 1 (group stage)
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo had swung an arm at Iranian striker Morteza Pouraliganji off the ball but received only a caution after referee Enrique Caceres reviewed the incident using VAR. It had earlier been used to award a penalty to Portugal, which Ronaldo then missed, and for the equalising penalty to Iran after Portuguese defender Cedric Soares was judged to have handled the ball.
South Korea 2 Germany 0 (group stage)
South Korean defender Kim Young Gwon's injury-time strike, which had put South Korea ahead, was initially ruled out for offside. The goal was restored after VAR showed the ball had been played to him via German midfielder Toni Kroos and Germany crashed out of the tournament, finishing last in their group.
France 4 Croatia 2 (final)
With the game locked at 1-1, Croatian forward Ivan Perisic's hand made contact with the ball in the penalty box as a corner came in. Advised by the VAR to review the incident, referee Nestor Pitana overturned his initial decision not to award the spot kick, paving the way for France to lift their second World Cup trophy.
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