Gary Day / AAP
No amount of technology will ever remove the role of human judgement in refereeing the messy, complex world of football.
Referee Bjorn Kuipers at the Czech Republic v Denmark semi final.
Reuters/Alamy
The Premier League could learn a thing or two from Euro 2020’s referees.
Manchester City players argue with the referee after a City goal was disallowed in the club’s Premier League match against Spurs, August 2019.
EPA-EFE/Peter Powell
Technology in sport is a constant source of controversy as players and officials struggle to keep up.
German referee Felix Brych looks at a replay of the video assistant referee (VAR) during the UEFA Nations League semi final soccer match between Portugal and Switzerland, June 2019.
EPA-EFE/Fernando Veludo
Many fans think the VAR is ruining the Women’s World Cup.
Senegal’s World Cup coach Aliou Cissé.
Atef Safadi/EPA
Although Senegal’s overall World Cup result was disappointing, the team showed that they have a great deal to build on for future campaigns.
This is the first time Video Assistant Referee system, known as VAR,has been used at the world cup to assist referees make decisions.
KIMIMASA MAYAMA/AAP
Video assistant referees have led to some controversial decisions at the World Cup. Rather than improving the quality of decision making by on-field refs, VAR could undermine it instead.
VAR is already proving controversial at this year’s World Cup.
EPA/ Yuri Kocketkov
VAR is part of a wider trend of digitalisation that threatens to make football less natural and spontaneous.
At the 2014 World Cup African fans felt that Nigeria were on the receiving end of poor refereeing.
Peter Powell/EPA
Video Assistant Referees at the World Cup finals in Russia might help African teams to do better than they have done so far.