While major professional sports are on hiatus, theScore’s writers are exploring what they’d do if this pause allowed for changes to the rules and structures of various leagues. In Part 6, soccer takes center stage. Previous entries in the series examined MLB, the NHL, the NCAA world, the NFL, and the NBA.
We need to talk about VAR
For many, the last weekend of December was the breaking point.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, Norwich City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Sheffield United, and Crystal Palace all had goals ruled offside by negligible margins in the Premier League, and frustrations with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system peaked. It was a cumulative effort. Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane’s armpits and Heung-min Son’s shoulder blade were contributors, as was Jan Vertonghen’s “non-penalty” challenge on Gerard Deulofeu. Whether it’s changing results due to minuscule margins or unintelligible subjectivity, VAR’s current form isn’t good enough.
Reluctantly accepting that VAR is here to stay – FIFA president Gianni Infantino said as much in February – two immediate fixes are compulsory. One focuses on the Premier League, where the technology runs amok, and one amounts to a radical change sport-wide.
England …read more