World Cup 2018 will be remembered for the resurgence of the underdogs and redemption of France who had suffered a UEFA Euro final heartbreak versus Portugal a couple of years back but clinched the greatest football glory defeating Croatia in the final showdown. Meanwhile, the carnival in Russia also witnessed the application of Video Assistant Referee, popularly known as VAR, that mostly garnered mixed to positive reviews despite being subject to a few controversies.
Although it has been implemented in La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A after plenty of studies and experiments, English FA had initially opted to wait for one more season before applying it to Premier League football. But they have now stepped up the execution due to its increasing popularity worldwide and they have decided to trial the system across a number of matches this season.
Why it has taken time to be introduced
VAR has been devised to reduce human errors but the Premier League clubs voted unanimously against it back in April in order to wait until the officials get more used to it. And with the VAR operational during the World Cup, it was also a wait and watch scenario on how it affected the games and overall the outcome of a huge competition like the World Cup.
How it will be implemented
The trial will take place simultaneously in all five 3 p.m. fixtures on 15th September, i.e tomorrow, to understand whether they are well equipped and technically sound at Stockley Park, the nerve centre near Heathrow airport, for the extreme workload. The assistants in the VAR hub, however, won’t be in contact with on-field officials to avoid controversy or confusion during this crucial period of trial and observation. It is expected the VAR will be operational in around 60 matches this season across all competitions in England.
Why VAR is the way forward
The top division of English football is known for its highly competitive and superlative stature where each decision has an impact on the key events – from title battle to relegation woes. The VAR experiment has been a feature since the previous term in domestic cup contests where there have been many alterations in decisions after reviewing. The quality of officiating has taken a bit of a nosedive in England which was backed up by the fact that none of the officials was selected to conduct a World Cup game and a recent report elucidated on how the top of the table would have turned out if there was the presence and correct utilisation of the VAR last year.
Liverpool and Manchester United might have differing views
The research was supervised by ESPN in partnership with Intel and the University of Bath that considered controversial offside decisions, disallowed goals, marching orders, contentious penalties and some other facts before publishing a revised Premier League standings. Liverpool, who came fourth last season, turned out to be the most unfortunate of all having been denied 12 points altogether whereas Manchester United, the runners-up, were seemingly the ‘luckiest’ having gained six points more than what they might have if all the decisions were taken correctly.
VAR, meanwhile, is not expected to wipe out all disputes at a go and will take time to synchronize with the pace and flair of English football. But the influence of technology on modern day sports should be given its due and Premier League, too, must embrace it in a more complete manner next season onwards.