Skip to main content

About the Blog

Hello and welcome to 'VAR Check in Progress'! I am a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Strathclyde and as part of my Marketing degree I have been tasked to create a blog on a topic of my choice. Being an avid lover of football all my life it felt only right for the it to be centred around the beautiful game; so here we go! 🤝

As you will be able to gather from the genius title, this blog will delve into the major talking points and controversies that have come with the creation of VAR (Video Assistant Referee). By looking back at key elite level matches in the past where VAR has been in operation and put in man of the match performances, if you will, the blog will establish the key pros and cons of VAR.

Then after reminiscing on these monumental moments in 'modernised' football, an opinion from myself will be given (in my final post) on what the impact of VAR will have on football and whether having it within the game will ultimately improve or destroy it for the millions of players and fans across the globe.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Can Football Learn from Rugby's TMO?

This penultimate post is slightly different to the previous works of art, as it concerns how other sports such as rugby use VAR like technology in their game. How does it work? Is it successful? Well that's what this blog post will look to answer, while seeing if there is any lessons for football's VAR. Rugby has featured video assistant technology for quite some time. In fact, Rugby union first implemented the use of the television match official (TMO) back in 2001. The main intervention points for a TMO are for an act of scoring or foul play. These incidents will affect the scoreboard, requirement for a ruling on disciplinary actions or, sometimes both. Obviously, just like football, these are important to get right as they can massively affect the outcome of the match. One of the main plus points of how the technology is operated in rugby is the fact that when a match is televised, supporters can listen to the referee's thought process aloud, during TV commentary broadca...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 acros...
Post a Comment
Read more

VAR in Scottish Football?

This blog post concerns a topic very close to my heart and one that has been part of my life since I can remember; Scottish football. I have, along with my old man, supported Kilmarnock FC and been a season ticket holder since I was a wee guy! (4 years old). I have travelled across the country and have experienced every emotion under the sun (and snow) supporting Kilmarnock. From beating Celtic in the final of the 2012 league cup, qualifying for Europe under Steve Clarke and heartbreakingly, only last season, being relegated to the dreaded championship (2nd tier of Scottish football). So, as you can probably guess, I will be giving my humble opinion on the effects that VAR will have on Scottish football and whether or not it will improve the beautiful game over here - as it seems only inevitable that it will be introduced in the coming years. The reason Scottish football has not introduced VAR already is that the Scottish FA simply couldn't afford it. I feel this came as a blessing...
Post a Comment
Read more