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Russia 2018: The VAR World Cup gives us The VAR of the Show

By John-Patrick Quinn

KAZAN, RUSSIA - JUNE 16: The LED screen shows VAR reviewing a penalty decision during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group C match between France and Australia at Kazan Arena on June 16, 2018 in Kazan, Russia. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
KAZAN, RUSSIA - JUNE 16: The LED screen shows VAR reviewing a penalty decision during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group C match between France and Australia at Kazan Arena on June 16, 2018 in Kazan, Russia. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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This World Cup may already be going down in history as ‘The VAR World Cup’. With an unpredictable future of how the game will adapt with revolutionary technology, it might be that this is the only World Cup of its kind.

I have to admit, that I predicted that VAR would ruin this World Cup. So far, however, its implementation has been smoother than ever, even for a cynic like myself could’ve hoped.

France vs. Australia

As soon as Griezmann went down, despite there not being a VAR review break yet in the World Cup, I knew we would be seeing one. Sure enough, “when the ball was in a neutral area” the play was stopped for a review. (I still think that rule needs defining, clarification and probably throwing out.)

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The referee was then able to have a closer look at the decision and decided to overturn it. It was his decision but better informed. That’s all above-board. That’s fine, I can deal with that. I’d rather it didn’t take so long, but that didn’t ruin the game. If anything, it actually made a slightly dull game come to life.

The VAR later got used bizarrely, to check more technology…goal line technology already exists and has never been wrong yet. But they still felt the need to double-check this military-grade technology, like a kid using their new toy.

France won, and the Aussies will feel hard done by, but if they’d had VAR reviews when Grosso dived against them and knocked them out of the 2006 World Cup, they’d be a lot happier.

Peru vs. Denmark

Another correct use here, a bit more straightforward but it brings up an issue that I feel we need to address when using VAR.

If you’ve ever paid close attention to penalty misses, you’ll have spotted that the longer someone has to wait before they take a penalty, the more likely they are to miss it. There’s so much pressure on a kick, that obviously the more time it has to build, the bigger impact that will have on the taker.

Because VAR takes so long to award penalties, or check that they are valid when they’re given, this means that the taker has to wait a lot longer before taking them.

This certainly seemed to affect the Peruvian penalty taker Cueva, who blazed his penalty over after a long build up. The only thing I would say is, that if it wasn’t for VAR, Peru wouldn’t have had a penalty at all.

Peru went on to lose the game 1-0.

But we still have issues…

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There is still the problem of consistency. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard “clear and obvious error” quoted. When there has been a clear and obvious error, such as the penalty claim for Argentina’s Pavon, we haven’t had a review.

So whilst VAR has starred and set a high bar so far, the door’s still ajar to drop below par.

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