The motto behind every football match is providing an equal game. This proved to be a tough thing to ensure because, in the past, UEFA and FIFA had big trouble when dealing with corruption and match-fixing. The most frequent target in match-fixing was the referees, who were paid to favor one team during the games. After all, nobody should suffer a crucial defeat just because others wanted to make a handsome profit illegally. That is why, the officials introduced VAR, or Video Assistant Referee, to the world a few years ago. The point of VAR is to replay situations where the officials have doubts on a certain decision, review the footage and take the right action based on the replay.

This technology was inspired by many other areas in which you need to rely on computers and AI to bring the fair decision. One of the areas that started using similar technology is online casinos. Instead of VAR, they have Random Number Generators, to ensure fair and random outcomes of each game. If you want to see how the RNG works, you can try online casino games here.

Even though the purpose of VAR is to ensure fair play, the world of football is fairly divided when it comes to the use of it. Many people are for, but many think that this technology destroys the nature of the sport. Let’s check out some of the pros and cons and we’ll let you decide if the use of VAR is the right decision in improving the game.

Pros

When we talk about pros connected to using VAR in the games, we’ll start with the obvious. As of right now, VAR is the best weapon in the war against match-fixing. By enabling referees to have a look at the replays of some conflict situations, the chance of error is brought to a low level.

The assistant referee also helps the teams to have a fair play. For example, if a goal is scored during the last minutes of the match, but it’s from an offside situation, referees can check VAR and disallow the goal, preventing an unfair result from even happening.

One of the first leagues that incorporated VAR technology was the Italian Serie A. Even though there were some setbacks, in the beginning, the technology proved quite useful and helped massively in the fair outcomes of the games.

Cons

The first thing that came to everybody’s mind was that the use of VAR complicates the game itself. Matches would be much longer, and the VAR checking can sometimes take up to 3 minutes for a confirmation.

Secondly, many football fans said that by using this technology, the officials are robbing the clubs and the fans from the feeling of excitement, celebration, positive or negative outcomes, which is what the game is all about. They have stated that errors are part of the sport and it is natural that they occur sometimes. To add to this, the last league that incorporated VAR is the Premier League, and the referees are having a tough time there and are under massive criticism.

Given all these facts, what is your opinion – should we or shouldn’t we have VAR in the game?