tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/video-assistant-referee-54768/articlesVideo Assistant Referee – The Conversation2022-12-14T21:01:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933312022-12-14T21:01:17Z2022-12-14T21:01:17Z6 moments in African football in 2022 that will be talked about for years to come<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498014/original/file-20221129-12-csc9v0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa wins the Women's African Cup of Nations in Rabat as the women's game grows.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>2022 was a significant year for African football. It was a benchmark for the women’s game and a year that may mark the first real move into African football as a business rather than football as development. It ended with some thrilling matches at the men’s <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">World Cup</a> in Qatar, proving the real progress made by teams from African countries.</p>
<p>The first full year of a return to the sport after the COVID pandemic, 2022 has shown that the African game is able to grow and claim its own space in world football beyond the headlines generated by star African players like <a href="https://theconversation.com/superstars-sadio-mane-and-mo-salah-eclipse-african-football-at-home-187183">Mo Salah and Sadio Mané</a> playing for high profile European clubs.</p>
<p>Each of the six key events I’ve noted here presented a watershed moment. We may not all agree on the order, but can be sure they will be talked about for years to come.</p>
<h2>Afcon wins new respect</h2>
<p>Many top African footballers play for clubs in Europe. Late in 2021, the <a href="https://www.ecaeurope.com">European Club Association</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/dec/15/africa-cup-of-nations-to-go-ahead-despite-european-clubs-threat-say-organisers">threatened</a> to prevent key players from representing their countries at the <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/total-africa-cup-of-nations/">Africa Cup of Nations</a> (Afcon) tournament in 2022. They cited COVID-19 problems and conflict with the scheduling of league football in Europe. The Conversation Africa <a href="https://theconversation.com/afcon-demands-global-respect-opens-a-new-chapter-for-african-football-176552">projected</a> that the <a href="https://www.premierleague.com">English Premier League</a> alone stood to lose up to 37 players to Afcon. </p>
<p>But the African countries stood their ground and insisted on the release of the players. Importantly, several key figures in football, including European club manager <a href="https://www.transfermarkt.co.za/patrick-vieira/profil/trainer/20029">Patrick Vieira</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2022/01/08/the-african-cup-of-nations-deserves-as-much-respect-as-any-continental-tournament/?sh=493a0c284c4d">demanded</a> that Afcon be respected. In the end, the European clubs bowed and released their players to participate in Africa’s most glamorous football tournament. </p>
<p>Afcon went on to achieve <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/press-release/news/records-numbers-for-totalenergies-africa-cup-of-nations-fan-engagement-tournamen#:%7E:text=Impressions%20across%20all%20channels%20is,visits%20happened%20on%20Twitter%20only.&text=The%20YouTube%20channel%20has%20hit,time%20from%20opening%20to%20finale.&text=300%20million%20video%20views%20..">record numbers</a> in fan engagement, with over 1 billion video views worldwide and unprecedented social media attention. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/afcon-demands-global-respect-opens-a-new-chapter-for-african-football-176552">Afcon demands global respect, opens a new chapter for African football</a>
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<h2>Women’s football scores big</h2>
<p>Club tournament the <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/caf-women-champions-league/">African Women’s Champions League</a> is barely two years old and there was no prize money on offer in 2021. But, in a stunning <a href="https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2022/10/20/caf-unveils-prize-money-womens-champions-league/">announcement</a>, the <a href="https://www.cafonline.com">Confederation of African Football</a> (Caf) offered a purse for 2022. Winners now receive US$400,000 and the runner-up and third-placed teams US$250,000 and US$200,000. These are noteworthy figures, even compared to the prize for a club winning the Women’s Champions League in Europe. There, the <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/womens-champions-league-prize-money-barcelona-lyon/npbhtgbvkhqg8eqri0ruq0ls">published prize</a> for 2022 was US$230,000 or £200,000. ASFAR from Morocco <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/caf-women-champions-league/2022/news/asfar-dethrone-mamelodi-sundowns-to-win-first-caf-women-s-champions-league-title">triumphed</a> over Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa.</p>
<p>The prize money demonstrates a genuine move by Caf to improve women’s football on the continent and it will surely trigger more participation by women in the sport across various African countries. With such interest, media will follow to further raise the game’s profile. </p>
<h2>Africa makes its mark at the World Cup</h2>
<p>Before the 2022 men’s football World Cup, Africa had <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-final-16-african-performances-mark-a-definitive-moment-in-football-195888">previously presented</a> three teams at the quarter final stage – in 1990 (Cameroon), 2002 (Senegal) and 2010 (Ghana). Morocco joined that list in 2022 and then went a step further, making history by becoming the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final. However, Morocco reaching this zenith was not the only story for Africa at the 2022 World Cup. </p>
<p>This World Cup marked the only finals in which Africa had won <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/12702687/world-cup-2022-state-of-play-live-group-tables-results-and-fixtures-in-qatar">eight games</a> in regulation time. The previous highest total was four – in 2002 and 2010. This clearly marks major progress, more than a 75% win increase.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A football team poses in the middle of a field with a bank of cameras taping and photographing them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500387/original/file-20221212-103551-h6rrf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Moroccan team celebrates victory in the quarter-final of the World Cup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Grimm/Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Video assistant referees introduced</h2>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.fifa.com/technical/football-technology/football-technologies-and-innovations-at-the-fifa-world-cup-2022/video-assistant-referee-var">video assistant referees</a> are now a common part of global football, referees watching the game on video screens was new at Afcon in 2022. The system was <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-ug/news/afcon-2021-caf-confirms-var-to-be-used-in-all-52-matches-in-cameroon/blt7738c819ec7a536e">used</a> for the first time in the final stage and proved crucial in helping match officials make decisions. </p>
<p>Several games were decided by video analysis following video replays. It was critical in deciding a knockout stage <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1554682/Everton-news-Alex-Iwobi-red-card-Nigeria-AFCON-exit-Tunisia">game</a> between Nigeria and Tunisia, for example. A video replay led to the disqualification of a Nigerian player as his team chased an equalising goal. Although the system has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/var-penalty-kick-scotland-womens-world-cup-2019-6">challenged</a> at other tournaments, it was considered a success at Afcon. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/morocco-vs-south-africa-as-womens-football-enters-a-new-era-187267">Morocco vs South Africa as women's football enters a new era</a>
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<h2>New powers in the women’s game</h2>
<p>Nigeria had <a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-football-in-nigeria-has-a-long-history-of-defiance-154573">dominated</a> African women’s football for so long that for years there was no contest at the continental championship level. However, the hard work of countries like Morocco, South Africa and Ivory Coast has gradually started to <a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-afcon-2022-nigeria-sweats-as-morocco-and-cote-divoire-usher-in-new-era-177844">pay off</a>. </p>
<p>At this year’s <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/totalenergies-womens-africa-cup-of-nations/">Women’s Africa Cup of Nations</a> (Wafcon), Ivory Coast failed to qualify, beaten by Nigeria despite its <a href="https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/france2019/teams/1885020">credible performance</a> at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. However, Nigeria found that its dominance at Wafcon had come to an end. Nigeria was eliminated by hosts Morocco at the semi-final stage and then beaten by Zambia in a tough third place game. Morocco, playing eye catching football throughout the tournament, lost to South Africa in the <a href="https://africa.cgtn.com/2022/07/24/south-africa-defeats-morocco-to-win-first-wafcon-title/">final</a>. South Africa had earlier dealt Nigeria a blow at the group stage. </p>
<p>These performances and results demonstrate the spreading of top level talent and teams across the continent. </p>
<h2>A brand new league</h2>
<p>The biggest development of the year, however, has to be Caf’s <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/press-release/news/caf-launches-groundbreaking-africa-super-league">announcement</a> of a new league for African premier clubs, starting in 2023. The lucrative new Africa Super League involves the continent’s best clubs, some countries providing as many as three teams and others none. </p>
<p>This competition is made for TV, designed to generate revenue from deep-pocket sponsors through broadcast rights. The tournament will replace the African Champions League as the continent’s premier club competition and will be dominated by the big North African clubs from Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. With top West African players <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175150#metadata_info_tab_contents">migrating</a> to Europe and Asia in recent years, the North Africans have dominated. </p>
<p>In the long term this should help develop stronger, better funded African clubs, better able to keep some top talents at home. If Caf is able to pull this off, it will be a significant watershed in African football. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-lucrative-new-african-football-league-is-coming-the-pros-and-cons-188826">A lucrative new African football league is coming: the pros and cons</a>
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<p>Caf’s <a href="https://www.cafonline.com/news-center/news/dr-patrice-motsepe-elected-7th-caf-president-unopposed-in-rabat">new leadership</a>, elected in 2021, came in with an ambitious ten-point plan to revitalise African football. It hasn’t been easy, given the state of finances that it inherited, including the loss of a major sponsorship. Yet, its activities in 2022 have demonstrated the potential to dramatically open new vistas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chuka Onwumechili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There was a significant shift towards African football as a business rather than football as development.Chuka Onwumechili, Professor of Communications, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892232022-09-05T16:38:00Z2022-09-05T16:38:00ZVAR: I used motion capture technology to show why the Premier League gets tight offside decisions wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482012/original/file-20220831-11-hl5j8l.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1063&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pooya Soltani</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent Premier League game, Manchester United went 2-0 up when striker Marcus Rashford ran on to a pass and slotted the ball past Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Alisson Becker. The game was then held up briefly while the “video referee” checked whether Rashford was ahead of the last defender, Joe Gomez, when the pass was made. The difference between onside and offside – between goal or no goal – can be tiny:</p>
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<p>Indeed, the margins can be so small that simply placing the camera at a slightly different angle could make a big difference. This problem of camera angles, and how they affect our perception of offside calls, is what encouraged me to use my expertise in 3D motion capture technology to explore the accuracy of video refereeing systems.</p>
<p>Video assistant referee (or VAR) technology was first introduced in 2018 to help referees review decision for goals, red cards, penalties and mistaken identity. Since then the total number of fouls, offsides and yellow cards has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24748668.2019.1646521?journalCode=rpan20">decreased</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, VAR has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24748668.2020.1788350">increased</a> the total match time while reducing the effective playing time. The final VAR outcome is determined by a human operator in an office far from the stadium – who may of course be prone to human error – before being relayed to the on-pitch referee.</p>
<p>Yet another VAR controversy arose recently as the on-pitch referees accepted Newcastle United and West Ham goals against Crystal Palace and Chelsea respectively, only for those goals to be disallowed after VAR reviewed them. These decisions were heavily criticised in the media and now PGMOL, the referees’ body, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/04/premier-league-request-review-of-controversial-var-decisions">promised to “fully co-operate”</a> with a Premier League review of the incidents.</p>
<h2>Why offsides are so hard to judge</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-11---offside">Law 11</a> of association football states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts except their hands and arms are in the opponents’ half and closer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent (the last opponent is usually, but not necessarily, the goalkeeper).</p>
<p>Referees and assistant referees need to identify the exact moment the ball was kicked and check the position of often fast-moving players at the same time. If in doubt, they can review the video footage of the incident. These videos are often recorded at 30 frames per second, yet the video may still become blurred because the players move so quickly.</p>
<p>It is therefore unclear whether the current video replay technology is accurate enough to deal with the narrowest offside situations. To find out, I used optical motion capture technology which records the position of the players and the ball in 3D and with higher accuracy, and so can be used to validate the outcomes of 2D video systems.</p>
<p>I created some offside scenarios in a laboratory and asked volunteers to act as the players and the VAR. In each scenario, one player passed the ball to their teammate who was standing next to an opponent. </p>
<p>I placed reflective markers on the players and the ball and recorded their 3D positions with a motion capture system. I also recorded the scenes with video cameras placed at different viewing angles. Then I asked ten college students to watch the pre-recorded events, and to determine the ball-kick moment and identify whether the player was offside. </p>
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<p>My results were recently published by the <a href="https://commons.nmu.edu/isbs/vol40/iss1/158/">International Society of Biomechanics in Sport</a>.
I showed that people on average judge the offside moment as being later than the actual moment the ball was kicked by 132 milliseconds, or 0.13 seconds. </p>
<p>Such a delay may not seem a lot, but in fast-paced games like football, it could be enough to put players in another location and therefore make them offside. For example, assuming that a player is moving at about 8 metres per second, a delay of just 0.13 seconds could correspond to about 1 metre.</p>
<p>When viewing videos taken from 0 and 90 degree angles (from raised positions in line with the players and behind the goalkeeper), participants were more likely to be accurate. At a 45° viewing angle and when the image of the attacker is to the left side of the defender, sometimes the attacker appeared to be closer to the goal line, resulting in wrong offside judgments. </p>
<p>Similarly, when the attacker was on the right side of the defender, even when he was offside, sometimes he appeared to be next to the defender. It seems that these wrong decisions are the results of relative optical projections of the two players at this camera viewing angle.</p>
<h2>How to reduce these biases further</h2>
<p>As there is still a human element to VAR, it seems impossible to remove all potential errors and biases and achieve 100% accuracy. Nonetheless, there are several things we could do to reduce these biases further. These include higher frame-rate cameras that could determine ball contact and offside moment in slower motion.</p>
<p>For marginal offside decisions, VAR should replace its current one-pixel line with thicker lines to represent the uncertainty zone. Where the lines overlap, those situations could be deemed as onside.</p>
<p>Finally, in case a parallel or perpendicular view of the event is not possible, VAR should be checked with other camera angles. In the longer term, VAR could use “volumetric video” that captures the scene in 3D and can be viewed on flat screens as well as in 3D displays or VR goggles.</p>
<p>These technologies might not ever completely resolve the question of whether or not Rashford was offside – football fans, players and managers love a good argument. But it should not be over millimetres.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pooya Soltani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What happened when we recreated football scenarios in a laboratory.Pooya Soltani, Researcher, Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research and Applications, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/984662018-07-10T01:39:22Z2018-07-10T01:39:22ZHow video assistant referees could undermine on-field referees at the FIFA World Cup<p><a href="https://football-technology.fifa.com/en/innovations/var-at-the-world-cup/">Video-assistant referees</a> (VAR) were introduced into the FIFA World Cup for the first time this year.</p>
<p>For those who haven’t been paying attention: VAR are a team of off-field officials who can replay and review video of on-field refereeing decisions – particularly those involving goals, goalscoring opportunities, and penalties.</p>
<p>This sounds like it would be a good thing – but the technology has resulted in some <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-17/australia-feels-var-wrath-again/9878014">controversial</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/jedinak-says-var-decision-strangest-moment-of-his-career_1">heavily debated</a> decisions at the World Cup in Russia. </p>
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<p>For example, the foul that afforded France’s Antoine Griezmann a penalty to help seal the win against Australia in the first round of matches was initially overlooked by the ref. He was subsequently persuaded by advice from the VAR to review the video and award a penalty. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Antoine Griezmann’s goal during France v Australia.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Conversely, Switzerland’s equalising goal against Brazil – which propelled them into the round of 16 – might have been disallowed because a Swiss player had held a Brazilian player back illegally. But the VAR made no argument to review the goal.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Steven Zuber’s equalising goal during Brazil v Switzerland.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Given the controversies generated by these decisions, one might question whether the introduction of VAR really improves the quality of refereeing. In fact, instead of improving the decision-making of on-field refs, VAR may actually undermine it.</p>
<h2>The nature of expertise</h2>
<p>Becoming an expert at anything takes <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-expertise-and-expert-performance/95B7A17EA9EE0E02A804B2930EB50C28">dedicated practice</a>. One of the things experts excel at is the ability to perceive vital information in the surrounding environment, relate that to an extensive knowledge base built up through years of practice, and then translate this information into an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17968048">appropriate response</a>.</p>
<p>A referee who witnesses foul play will relate its type and gravity to the appropriate penalty set out in the rules of football, then decide whether to award a free kick and possibly a yellow card. This is commonly referred to as perceptual-cognitive expertise.</p>
<p>But it isn’t this alone that sets an expert referee apart from everyone else. Referees not only have to make the right decision, they have to do it while taking into account the context of the decision – and all in the blink of an eye.</p>
<h2>Intuitive versus rational decision-making</h2>
<p>We are taught never to judge a book by its cover and to think carefully about decisions, but also to trust our intuition. Yet these instructions seem to contradict each other. They highlight the fact that there are <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/thinking-fast-and-slow-9780141033570">two systems of decision-making</a>: the fast, intuitive system, and the slow, rational, analytical system. </p>
<p>The rational system involves basing decisions on careful deliberation of relevant information, and the potential costs and benefits of a decision. Intuitive decision-making is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597812000994">far less conscious and deliberate</a>, and is often more affected by emotion and gut feeling. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-provides-plenty-of-drama-but-football-must-not-forget-its-social-responsibility-99061">World Cup provides plenty of drama – but football must not forget its social responsibility</a>
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<p>For example, a study on decision-making in firefighters <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1518/155534310X12844000801203">found</a> that firefighters don’t think, they just act based on their experience in previous situations. This highlights the intuitive nature of decision-making under pressure and the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597812000994">role played by experience</a>.</p>
<p>For football referees, there is no time for slow and rational decision-making either, due to the inherent pressures of the game. When making difficult decisions in challenging circumstances, referees must largely rely on fast and intuitive decision-making that is a product of extensive practice and experience. Because of this, problems with objectivity (referees are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02640410601038576">inherently and unconsciously biased</a>) and accuracy (referees make some errors each game) are well recognised and accepted as an integral part of football.</p>
<h2>VAR could undermine intuitive decision-making</h2>
<p>The expert referees at the FIFA World Cup have spent years developing intuitive decision-making processes that allow them to make objective on-field calls. Despite considerable external pressure from fans, players and coaches, these decisions are correct most of the time. </p>
<p>For example, one study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43129267_Visual_Scan_Patterns_and_Decision_-_Making_Skills_of_Expert_Assistant_Referees_in_Offside_Situations">found</a> that 73.8% of offside calls during the Fifa 2002 World Cup were assessed correctly. Referees in the English Premier League during the 2013-14 season were correct <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/publications">95% of the time</a>. </p>
<p>This is because referees have become experts at matching perceptual and contextual information from the game with knowledge about the rules, through years of extensive practice. </p>
<p>Providing referees with VAR could interfere with this intuitive process.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-football-tournament-should-be-called-the-mens-world-cup-98348">Why this football tournament should be called the men’s World Cup</a>
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<p>Every refereeing decision brings a cost and a benefit to the game. The discrepancy between the VAR and the on-field referees could affect a referee’s authority and subsequent decisions during the games. The addition of the VAR likely moves the decision-making process of expert referees from a highly effective intuitive process to a more rational or analytical one. </p>
<p>Given the limited experience of using VAR to date, and its potential interference with current on-field referees’ expertise, it is questionable whether VAR truly adds value to on-field referees’ performance. Perhaps it limits their ability to make intuitive decisions that reflect the fast-paced nature of the game, ultimately compromising the expertise they have worked so hard to acquire. </p>
<p>If the use of VAR continues, young referees should be trained to make decisions in the presence of VAR during the developmental process, and its implementation with more expert on-field referees should be thoroughly reviewed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Job Fransen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>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.Job Fransen, Lecturer in Skill Acquisition and Motor Control, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/969302018-06-10T08:53:59Z2018-06-10T08:53:59ZWhy African football fans should welcome video assistant referees at the World Cup<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222000/original/file-20180606-137309-srpo3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the 2014 World Cup African fans felt that Nigeria were on the receiving end of poor refereeing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Powell/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African fans have always seen match officiating at the World Cup as one reason why their teams <a href="https://www.kingfut.com/2013/09/13/injustice-in-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-is-it-really-a-world-cup/">fail to do better</a> than they have done so far. Now technology is set to come to the aid of African teams and their fans during the World Cup in Russia. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, football’s umbrella body, the International Federation for Football Associations (FIFA), <a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/36-referees-and-63-assistant-referees-appointed-as-russia-2018-match-officials">announced</a> that it will use the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for World Cup matches in Russia. It is one of the rule changes at the 2018 World Cup. The <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/football/var-and-fourth-substitute-given-the-go-ahead-for-2018-fifa-world-cup-1691899.html">other</a> allows a fourth substitute when the game goes into extra time.</p>
<p>BBC Sport <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43438344">described</a> the VAR as,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>basically like another referee’s assistant - but one that has access to TV replays from a multitude of angles.</p>
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<p>A VAR will <a href="https://football-technology.fifa.com/en/innovations/var-at-the-world-cup/">support</a> the head referee in each of the World Cup’s 64 matches. The video assistant referee team, all top FIFA referees in their own right, are located in a centralised video operation room in Moscow. The system <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/01/gianni-infantino-vars-2018-world-cup-confederations-cup-fifa">involves </a> them watching the action remotely and then drawing the match referee’s attention to officiating mistakes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theifab.com/news/historic-step-for-greater-fairness-in-football">Described</a> as an “historic step for greater fairness in football”, the VAR will aim to reduce unfairness caused by “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents” in relation to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Goals and offences leading up to a goal;</li>
<li>Penalty decisions and offences leading up to a penalty;</li>
<li>Direct red card incidents only; or</li>
<li>Mistaken identity (when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player of the offending team).</li>
</ul>
<p>The VAR is, particularly, intriguing because a year-long <a href="http://static-3eb8.kxcdn.com/documents/648/071316_030318_AGM_Media_Package_Final.pdf">study</a> by Belgian University KU Leuven shows that the VAR increases officiating accuracy from 93% to 98.8% and time lost using the system is just an average of 55 seconds. The university study is based on over 1,000 games where the VAR was used. </p>
<h2>Rectifying poor calls</h2>
<p>While, several analysts have focused on the VAR rectifying poor calls during matches at the 2018 World Cup, few point to why African fans (along with fans of other less favoured teams) welcome the use of the VAR. African fans have been alleging biased refereeing decisions for years at the World Cup – a case in point was in Italy in 1990 when Cameroon were <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-02/sports/sp-470_1_world-cup">controversially ousted</a> by England. Two arguable calls went England’s way in that memorable quarter final against Cameroon prompting protests and riots in Cameroon by frustrated fans. </p>
<p>At the 1998 World Cup in France, match officials contentiously overruled two Cameroon goals in a game that Cameroon finally <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jun/24/sports/sp-63139">drew</a> 1-1 with Chile, sending the African team home after the first round. Many Africans still believe that the officials were wrong to overrule those goals. </p>
<p>At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, African fans felt that Nigeria were on the receiving end of particularly poor, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/30/nigeria-loss-france-world-cup-2014">“biased”</a> refereeing in their match against France. Perhaps, with the VAR, results would have been different in each of those cases. </p>
<h2>Social perception</h2>
<p>Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider’s <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dbc6/ca9548099b6f2b84d1cd81f3eb13c07cde7f.pdf">attribution theory</a> partly explains why African fans feel hard done by. More than 50 years ago, Heider wrote a treatise on the processes that impact social perception, on how ordinary people <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.html">explain</a> events as they do. </p>
<p>That treatise is an excellent tool for how the African World Cup fan explains the World Cup and failure of African teams.</p>
<p>This means that Cameroon’s victories on the way to meeting England at the 1990 World Cup were attributed to the team’s great play, and their ability, among other virtues. The African fans would most likely have cited forward <a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/behind-the-world-cup-record-roger-milla-2901386">Roger Milla</a>’s brilliance, the team’s collective speed and their individual talent as reasons for Cameroon’s victories. </p>
<p>However, they would not attribute the defeat against England to England’s talent, skill, tactics or other dispositions. For negative results like that, Heider informs us, attribution is no longer made to dispositions but to situations. Thus, the attribution or causes become poor match officiating, the systemic racism that denies African teams a chance, and so on. </p>
<h2>Fans’ rationale</h2>
<p>Heider’s attribution theory provides us ways to understand the rationale of the African fan at the World Cup. However, that’s about to change with the introduction of the VAR. Rather than concluding that a non-African referee discriminates against Africans, the VAR becomes the check against such anticipated discrimination. </p>
<p>Thus, the VAR will not only get calls right, it will make things fair and do so by creating an impression of fairness. At least, attributing defeat or failure to refereeing may become a thing of the past. Although, Heider argues, there could be newer attributions. This time, however, newer attributions may be the weather, the hotel, or other perceived disruptions.</p>
<p>Those are somewhat more palatable than blaming match officials. One thing we know is that improvements to the game often advance fairness. FIFA’s decision to play the final two group games simultaneously reduced possibilities of fixed results after Germany and Austria were widely believed to have <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrisbevan/2010/05/the_story_of_the_1982_world_cu.html">fixed the result</a> of their game at the 1982 World Cup which eliminated Algeria. So welcome to the VAR.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chuka Onwumechili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Video Assistant Referees at the World Cup finals in Russia might help African teams to do better than they have done so far.Chuka Onwumechili, Professor of Communications, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.