What is VAR? video assistant referee

What Is VAR? Soccer's Video Review 

When an acronym for instant replay is overshadowing the World Cup, the beautiful game can get ugly, fast.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening in France, where every Women’s World Cup match, it seems, is marred by some controversy surrounding VAR, or “video assistant referee.” This technology is supposed to efficiently solve rules disputes, not enrage fans and leave the world’s best soccer players, who’ve worked their whole life to take part in a global mega-event like the World Cup, completely flustered.

Let’s take a closer look at the row over VAR.

What is VAR?

VAR is essentially soccer’s instant replay system. On March 3, 2018, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the top rulemaking body for global soccer, wrote VAR into the laws of the game. IFAB touted this measure as a “historic step for greater fairness in football.”

The guiding philosophy of video review was “minimum interference-maximum benefit,” with aims to eliminate “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents” with regards to goal calls, penalty decisions, decisions to hit players with red cards after a first infraction, and cases of mistaken identity, i.e. giving a penalty to the wrong player. Sounds reasonable, right? With stakes as high as they are in world soccer, you want to get the call correct.

That same month, FIFA voted to include VAR at last summer’s men’s World Cup in Russia. Top leagues around the world were already experimenting with the system, so many of the men’s players were familiar with VAR going into their tournament. VAR was generally considered a success for the men: according to FIFA, VAR resulted in a 99.3% success rate of correct calls (without VAR, 95% of calls would have been right).

So FIFA approved VAR for the women right away, right?

No, and that’s part of the problem. Rather than just implement a successful innovation for the Women’s World Cup right away, FIFA dragged its feet on approving VAR for the women’s event this summer.

“I think it would be a little bit insulting if we weren’t afforded the same opportunity,” U.S. women’s soccer coach Jill Ellis said of VAR after last summer’s men’s World Cup. “There’s too much at stake to not have it, and I think our game, our passion, our drive, our motivation is at the same level as the men.”

In December, FIFA announced its list of referees and assistant referees for the Women’s World Cup, but made no mention of video refs. FIFA finally approved VAR for the Women’s World Cup on March 15, less than three months before the start of the tournament. So the women didn’t benefit from playing under VAR before its introduction at the world’s most important soccer tournament.

Also, on June 1 — just six days before the start of the Women’s World Cup — IFAB instituted a new rule mandating that goalkeepers must have at least part of one foot on the goal line, instead of both feet, when an opponent takes a penalty shot. Keepers can no longer stand behind the line. In theory, the new rule offers more flexibility for keepers. But introducing it so close to the World Cup, and using VAR to enforce it so strictly, has turned the women’s players into “guinea pigs,” as Chelsea women’s team manager Emma Hayes put it.