The Pros of VAR

Hello and welcome back to the 'VAR Check in Progress' blog. This post, as promised, is all about the pros of VAR. The Premier League were on the phone asking me to focus on the positives as there was talks it was getting scrapped after the last post; so here it goes.

The standout positive from VAR is the elimination of human error and thereby the allowance for better decision making to be made in matches. Pre-VAR, the monumental pressure of making the correct decisions in a game relied solely on the officiating personnel and ultimately the referee. With the introduction of VAR, it relives the referee of this pressure to an extent. It allows them to take a minute (or 5) to look at the footage and make a more informed decision.

Before, the referee had a split second to do this, and they had to rely solely on their own judgement. In the past, during a game, there was no possible way for the referee to realise they had made made a mistake until they saw their face plastered across the newspaper the next day or even worse, their name trending on Twitter. Therefore, one mistake from a referee could negatively affect a match massively and turn the focus of the game on the them rather than the football itself. I can think back at numerous times in the past, as a fan, where I've came away from a match or watched a match on the tele and the blamed the referee for result, via the use of a few superlatives. The VAR technology therefore has the major advantage of allowing the referee a second chance to make the right call based on video evidence. In turn, taking away some of the pressure and scrutiny they used to endure.

It is for these reasons that the potential of VAR is huge and if executed correctly only benefit the beautiful game.

Cheers, Leon x