Just over 11 years ago, Frank Lampard scored his infamous ‘ghost goal’ against Germany and it has been haunting football lovers ever since with thoughts of what the 3 Lions could have produced at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, rather than eventually succumb to a 4-1 World Cup quarter-final defeat.
While demons of that loss have been recently exorcised with England 2-0 knockout of Germany at the Euro 2020 tournament, Lampard’s looping half-volley over German keeper Manuel Neuer, off the bar and clearly crossing the line (despite assistant referee Mauricio Espinosa missing the goal due to tracking the Germany defenders rather than the ball) led to a chain of events that changed football forever. VAR, goal-line technology, and Hawkeye were the results and it has given sports bettors more confidence and certainty when placing their wagers.
As far as online bookies, sports betting experts, and amateur punters alike have found, the introduction of VAR technology shortly after Lampard’s goal-that-never-was has provided greater certainty for the outcomes of their wagers. The best betting sites have discovered that there are now fewer complaints made to their customer service teams when controversial decisions are made. Betting site users themselves are becoming younger and more tech-savvy every day, and the biggest demographic growth area of betting site users are the millennials, a generation raised comfortably trusting and reliant on technology. VAR technology sets fine with them.
However, it not yet perfect and there are some things that FIFA and UEFA could potentially do to make the VAR system even better.
What could make VAR even better?
VAR has been a massive step in the right direction, however, there are things that fans, players, and coaches would like introduced. In no definite order, here are 4 things that could possibly make VAR even better.
Add a VAR time limit
VAR reviews often take too long to complete and destroy the tempo of football matches. If a review takes more than, say, 60 seconds, the negative outcomes of the system can possibly overturn the positive ones, and swing the momentum of important matches. Imagine a world where if there is no clear decision after 60 seconds, the original call of the referee could stand, working hand-in-hand with;
Give teams a once-per-half VAR request
Now, only the match officials and their video assistants have the right to request a review. All the power of VAR technology currently rests in the hands of the referees.
To avoid absolute ‘howlers’ by the match officials, football could potentially offer teams one additional assessment per half on top of those requested by match officials, however, as mentioned above, keep them short and only requested by the team captain or manager.
Book players requesting VARs
Much time is wasted in matches by players throwing their hands in the air and making the ‘TV signal’. Book them and leave the VAR system in the hands of team captains and managers ONLY.
Better definition of ‘clear and obvious errors’
As it stands, match officials can openly interpret what is a ‘clear and obvious error’. It is hard to get right, but football needs to take interpretations out of VAR decisions, which is what it is intended to do after all.