In June, when IPSOS polled football fans on VAR’s impact on The Premier League, the results weren’t exactly glowing. Half felt it impacted negatively on the experience of going to a match, while 44% thought its overall impact on the sport was negative.
Conversely, in his social media response to Jack Draper’s match at the Cincinnati Open. last Sunday, Novak Djokovic made an emphatic call for the introduction of video reviews in tennis. The post was prompted by Draper, the British No 1, defeating Félix Auger-Aliassime in a close game which ended with the Canadian complaining that Draper’s winning volley had gone into the ground first. With no replay available, the umpire called the point in Draper’s favour.
Djokovic wrote: ‘It’s embarrassing that we don’t have video replay of these kind of situations on the court, what’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have the rule in place that would allow chair umpires to change the original call based on the video review that happens off the court!’
So, with fans and athletes clearly split on the topic: to VAR or not to VAR, what is the answer?
Of all sports, rugby union is probably the closest to getting it right. Even then, there’s an issue. When England played South Africa in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final in Paris, Mark Cueto’s try was reviewed for around 3 minutes. This was nothing compared to the 2017 European Rugby Champions Cup game between Leicester Tigers and Racing 92, when a key try-scoring review took a staggering 10 minutes. Woe betide any IPSOS researchers at large that night…
As with any technology in sport, it is the job of those creating and installing these officiating aids to ensure that they give robust insights, and the responsibility of those applying them to ensure they are used wisely.
Video replays should absolutely be available to officials, but for the sake of players, fans and broadcasters, decisions should be made within a given number of replays or a limited timeframe. Based on those constraints, if something cannot be determined beyond doubt, then the old-fashioned route is available: make the award with the run of play or the original decision.
There may be some mistakes but you could end up with a more acceptable balance. And you might just find that fans start to warm up to this important technology.
No comment yet, add your voice below!