Technology continues to have a massive impact on virtually every aspect of life today. Not only is technology advancing in everyday life and industries it is also advancing in sports too. We first seen technology be introduced with Goal Line technology in 2014, if it was 2 years before we would’ve all been celebrating Lampard wonder strike in the world Cup, which was wrongfully disallowed against Germany. And Since 2018, during the World Cup in Russia we seen the first glimpse and introduction of VAR. VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is a match official in association football which reviews decisions made by the referee.

VAR, apart from the central referee on the pitch and linesmen, comes in handy in games and can help make crucial decisions in matches as it can see what they are not able to. But like all other pieces of technology, VAR sounds like it’s a positive impact on the game today, however over the past 2 years especially in the Premier League it has had some major disadvantages. Here I am going to compare all the advantages and disadvantages and we will see if VAR is helpful to the game or just a hinderance.

The advantages of VAR are:

• Better Decision Making: one advantage of Var is that there is much better decision making from the referee during the game now. Before Var it was not possible for a referee to overturn a decision following an incident. However now referees can overturn their decisions with this introduction of VAR. For example, a referee has given a penalty, Var has seen this decision differently and it is not a penalty, the ref can come over review and overturn his/her decision. Referees are only humans and can make mistakes, so VAR is there as a back up for the refs to make those fair correct decisions and have the evidence to back their decisions up.
• Greater entertainment: When the referee runs on to the on-field monitor to watch the replay of action, can make fans in the stadium sit on the edge of their seat. There is also so much adrenaline running through the bodies of both sets of players while they argue and wait for the referee’s decision of either a red card or penalty or an offside decision.
• Discipline within Players: Football is a sport hat requires discipline and VAR is the piece of technology that can enforce it. Referees are the people in charge of the flow of games and making sure players behave within the laws of the game and maintain their discipline. However as previously stated referees can miss certain situations/decisions, however with VAR players know they cannot be aggressive towards opponents since their action can be reviewed by the referee as its almost like a “Big Brother” effect. Therefore VAR promotes fair play between players from both teams.

The disadvantages of VAR:

• Time Wastage: Time is extremely vital in football matches, if a team is looking for a desperate win or to salvage a point, then anyone or anything that wastes time is a huge hurdle to success. VAR decisions take time as they involve a careful analysis of footage of decisions. And also in some cases, the referee takes too long to rectify an incident and the celebration have to be put on hold especially for winning goals and when the call is made the players don’t hug each other instead they look at the referee.

• Overuse: Now that the facility of VAR is there, players try to convince referee by tending him to check every small incident, but the rules doesn’t state so, VAR will step up only if there is a chance of an obvious error thus wasting more time which in turn could lead to unexpected advantages or disadvantages for the two teams.
• Relying on Technology: A referee's individual decisions are important in football as these are fast and straight to the point. However, since the introduction of VAR, referees are relying more on this technology rather than their own knowledge and training as if they don't believe in themselves or believe in their decisions. Referees are usually under a lot of pressure from players and supporters but revising VAR should only be done when a certain action is confusing for the main and the assistant referees.

To conclude, in the past many critical matches of a tournament have ended in controversies like Maradona's ‘Hand of Goal’ against England in 1986 World Cup or perhaps the Thierry Henry's handball which allowed France to progress to the FIFA World Cup 2010 or the UEFA Champions League semifinals between Chelsea and Barcelona in which the referee gave a series of wrong decisions which enabled Chelsea from reaching the finals or as discussed earlier Lampard’s goal against Germany in knockout stages of World Cup 2010 which was disallowed or the 2017 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 matches between PSG and Barcelona which is often referred as the biggest comeback in football history had many arguable situations during the game. But after the introduction of VAR those unfair decisions have been ruled out, so yes VAR isn’t perfect and can make mistakes and the wrong interpretation of a VAR decision can affect the outcome of the game, it does help referees be more accurate with their decisions and can pick up on decisions that wouldn’t be seen by the on-field referee.

Although my own honest opinion would have been never bring in VAR, as why fix something that isn’t broken. Football isn't Rugby or Cricket, its more exciting, so why bring in their style of refereeing which can make the the sport potentially boring due to the amount of stoppages? Also you have to feel for the players as its becoming more common when they score it'll get disallowed so they'll never know when to celebrate, which can then cause frustration for fans.