March 8 – Little more than a month before kickoff at the World Cup, where video assistant referees are being used for the first time in football’s showpiece competition, the system has come in for yet more criticism – not over the principle of implementation but over the technical process.
In Australia, a technical malfunction is being blamed for failing to overrule the goal that helped Melbourne Victory win the A-League grand final against Newcastle Jets but which came from an offside position.
Broadcast replays showed a clear offside but the goal stood, only for Football Federation Australia to admit that the system broke down and was lost for 30 seconds in the lead-up to the Victory’s goal, unable to have access to the camera view.
It was not until several minutes after goal was awarded that the system was restored – too late due to the game already having been restarted.
“We are extremely disappointed at this failure of the VAR technology, and we understand the disappointment and frustration of the Newcastle Jets, their fans and indeed all football fans,” the FFA’s head of the A-League Greg O’Rourke said in a statement.
“VAR was introduced here and in other parts of the world as a technology-based solution to correct the human errors that inevitably are made from time to time when officials are making judgements in split seconds. On this occasion the technology itself failed and the broadcast angles required were unavailable. We are working to thoroughly understand why it did and what can be done to prevent this happening again.”
“All parties desire the technology to be failure proof and that is what we will be striving for . This is important not just for the A-League but for other leagues around the world and for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia at which VAR will be used for the first time.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the driving force behind VAR being introduced at the World Cup after a couple of years of experimentation in various leagues around the world, will doubtless will be hoping the technology works better in Russia that it did in Australia at the weekend.
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