By Andrew Warshaw
December 7 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has leapt to the defence of VAR amid the chaos and confusion over marginal offside decisions and penalised accidental handballs that many feel are ruining the game as a spectacle.
Players, coaches, fans and pundits have become increasingly vocal over the system whose original goal was to correct only “clear and obvious” errors rather than those that are imperceptible to the naked eye.
But Infantino says VAR needs to be given more time.
“We have to remember VAR was introduced for the first time two years ago, not 20 years ago,” he told reporters in a question and answer session following last Friday’s FIFA Council meeting.
“VAR is helping football, it’s certainly not damaging football.”
Infantino says it is the inconsistent interpretation of the rules, rather than the technology itself, which is causing most of the problems.
“We must not make a confusion between VAR and maybe sometimes wrong decisions which are taken because of the wrong way in which VAR is used, maybe in some places because of the lack of experience of those who are using VAR,” said Infantino.
“It’s a landmark change for referees who didn’t grow up with VAR.”
But he admitted: “What we do have to do is take the pulse of what is happening out there, to take the criticism and analyse it.”
Infantino stressed that leagues were under no obligation to use VAR if they didn’t want to.
“VAR is not an obligation, it’s there to help,” he said. “Those who don’t want to use it, they are not obliged to use it. It helped referees in the World Cup, it helps referees in many competitions and players and coaches agree.”
Marginal offside by hair’s breadth and a matter of millimetres is a particular bugbear, with critics pointing out it is wrecking the spirit of the game.
“This is not about VAR, it’s about the law,” argued Infantino.
“Offside is offside even if it’s marginal. The offside rule has evolved over the last 100 years and we are now discussing it again. We are looking to see if we can make the offside rule better, not because of VAR but because we want to foster offensive football. As far as handball is concerned, maybe in the past there was less scrutiny.”
Infantino implied that what constitutes offside and handball could be tweaked in the months to come by the game’s law making body, the International FA Board.
“The question is, should we give more advantage to the attacking player, which is how offside has evolved over the years, and would it help if there were no more marginal offsides? These are the discussions which are currently taking place. The technical and advisory panels of IFAB will certainly make some proposals on these two areas (offside and handball). There is more to come.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714094825labto1714094825ofdlr1714094825owedi1714094825sni@w1714094825ahsra1714094825w.wer1714094825dna1714094825