In recent days, football has been more about the VAR than about the game itself. The VAR once again became the center of a storm. Does VAR still have a future in football?
There was Tajon Buchanan’s elbow to Gift Orban on Sunday. On Tuesday there was the red card for Alessandro Ciranni after a tackle on Rob Schoofs. Each time, whether or not the VAR acted, caused the necessary controversy. Many had expected a red card at the elbow and at Ciranni they thought the red card was too strict at Zulte-Waregem.
It is not the 1st time that the VAR is in the center of attention. A month and a half earlier, for example, there was the serious mistake of Christophe Lepoint. He planted his foot right on Cihan Canak’s Achilles tendon. The referee then gave yellow and for the VAR it was not a clear error to make it red. And there are a number of other examples where the right decision was not made.
However, the intention was to remove the errors (and certainly the flagrant ones) through the introduction of the VAR. This is regularly not the case and that leads to a lot of annoyance and that is not only the case in Belgium. There are also weekly phases elsewhere in Europe that are poorly assessed.
FEES, CHALLENGES AND REVIEW COMMISSION
The question is whether it would ever work out effectively with the VAR. Part of the solution could be to increase fees. Being the VAR during the match brings, from an anonymous query of The last news, namely less. That would be demotivating. Or you could hire referees who only want and can be VAR. They may be more motivated.
Another solution could be the system of challenges like in hockey. Then players on the field could request a challenge and only then can the VAR act. Those players can sense and assess a phase themselves. His judgment then counts and with a successful challenge, the team keeps its challenge. This system has already proven very successful in hockey.
A lot can change with those 2 adjustments, but maybe it’s time to reintroduce the review committee for the serious mistakes. It still exists for the Challenger Pro League and you could also use that commission for the Jupiler Pro League. It’s already there anyway. With the review committee you can still remove the flagrant mistakes and still suspend someone. It is no longer decisive in the game, but the perpetrators are eventually punished.