Reinventing Football: Which laws should change? Handball? Offside? Penalties?
Will VAR be accepted? Maybe not in its current form, but how about adapting it to a challenge system?
You may not have heard of Fifa’s Football Video Support (FVS), which is being trialled in several leagues including Liga F, the top league for women’s football in Spain.
Under FVS, a coach is given two tackles per match. When these are activated, the on-field referee goes to the monitor to watch the incident and make a decision. There is no VAR reviewing the footage, only a replay operator who will show the incident to the referee.
Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford likes this theory.
“If VAR had been involved I would have done it like cricket,” Pickford said. “They have two decisions and the captain needs to make sure he reviews at the right time, within seconds. I think that will keep the pace of the game up and keep it fluid.”
Does that sound good? It has its benefits. Although trials have shown that this is not always the case and referees still make mistakes on screen, the assumption is that there will be better final results.
Match of the Day host Gabby Logan thinks there’s a different way to do it.
“There should be a time limit on VAR,” he said. “We all agree he’s here to stay and most of the time he does good things, but the time it can take is tiring. It stops the game. People are angry about that.”
“If it was just 90 seconds, I think we would have gotten most of this done because if it’s not clear and clear in 90 seconds, it’s not clear and crisp.”
But for former England defender Stephen Warnock, the solution is simpler; Getting rid of VAR.
“I’m tired of players not celebrating goals, fans not knowing what’s going on in the stadium, there’s so much inconsistency in it and it’s still down to human error which is a big problem,” he said.
