OP-ED: Amplification of Human Error in the Premier League With VAR

By Sebastian Tuinder

This year marks the first season in which the highly contentious Virtual Assistant Referee has made its official appearance in the Barclays Premier League.

“I’m not going to complain about the VAR, but, please, we must use it in the best way,” said Spurs manager, Mauricio Pochettino on Sunday, “because if not, we are creating a big mess, and changing the spirit of football.”

VAR is the English football’s equivalent to baseball’s, basketball’s, and the NFL’s “instant replay,” or the challenge system in tennis. The on-field referee in a football match may call upon the help of VAR to assist in some tough calls, including goal validity, potential penalty infringements, or possible red card offenses.

What seems to be working for the majority of sports, is definitely not working for arguably the most popular sport, and specifically, the most watched football league in the world. Forbes reported that each of the 20 Premier League teams received approximately $3 billion just in airing rights during the 2018/2019 season. It is no surprise then that when fans, players, and managers find fault in something, their grievances are expected to be heard.

The new technology, in theory, sounds like a great idea; surely with the advent of replays from multiple camera angles, the new system should be able to eradicate the element of human error on the pitch. Unfortunately this is not the case.

With decisions such as handballs in the box, or red cardable offenses on the field, the decision is a subjective one. Referees have to determine intention – did the player mean to perform the infringement, or did the player do enough to avoid performing the infringement? These rules are unlike that of the goal-line technology where the cameras are able to tell whether or not a ball has crossed the line. It either did, or it didn’t. There are clear-cut rulings to determine this.

Even rules that are meant to be straightforward, such as the offsides rule, are encountering issues. The rule states that an attacking player must be inline or behind the last defender when a ball is played to them. That seems pretty transparent. It isn’t. Did the player who is deemed offsides interfere with play? Did they gain an advantage from being in an offside position? What defines part of the player – Fingertips? Hair? The arm of a player does not count, yet Saturday’s clash between Liverpool and Aston Villa saw a Firmino goal disallowed. As is now custom, the referee called on VAR once the goal was scored for verification purposes. Firmino was found by the VAR to be offside. Well, to be more specific, his armpit was offside.

Firmino’s disallowed goal was hardly the highlight of this weekend’s football action. Everton, a goal down at home against Tottenham Hotspur, suffered a terrible loss when Andre Gomez broke his ankle in a horrific scene that left players gasping and in tears. Son Heung-min’s mistimed tackle saw Gomez fall to the ground in a heap. Judging by players’ reactions, it was obvious that something was severely wrong. A change of camera angles revealed Gomez’ right foot bent in an unnatural angle. Son’s hands cupped his mouth as players and officials rushed to console both him and the injured Gomez. The referee immediately gave Son a yellow card.

In the 10 minutes it took for medical officials to place Gomez on a stretcher, VAR was called into action to scrutinize the tackle and to verify whether or not the challenge warranted a yellow card. Viewers across the world were subjected to the horrific sights of Gomez’ contorted foot, but were also shown how Son’s initial contact with Gomez was less severe than what was thought. The ankle break was a result of Gomez landing awkwardly, not as a result of Son’s initial contact. Despite the referee and VAR viewing this exact footage, the referee marched over to an already devastated Son, and showed him a red card.

“We spend so often in this job talking about decisions by referees. We are now spending probably double or triple that time talking about decisions, so it hasn’t done what it was brought in to do,” said Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool player and former advocate for VAR.

Before VAR, almost every match was dotted with some hotly contested decision from the referee. VAR was brought into the sport to improve the game, and to assist the referees in order to lower the frequency of such contestion. It is clearly not doing its job, and must, therefore, be overhauled, revamped, or redesigned in order to best fit the most popular sport in the world.

There is no black or white, but instead an entire grey area that arguably makes football football. Unlike sports such as American football or basketball that are constantly stopping and starting with the screeches of the ref’s whistle, the love of football stems from the fluidity of the sport, the creative genius that can run uninterrupted for 10 minutes at a time. Please, from the bottom of a die-hard fan’s heart, bring back the game we love so dearly.