Football’s video referee (VAR) is apparently here to stay, at least in some parts of the world. CONCACAF (Confederation of Football Association of North, Central America and the Caribbean) revealed he will use VAR to assist referees in various competitions in 2022. You can look forward to the technology in all remaining CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Men’s and Women’s Under-20 Championships and the W Championship.
The organization’s decision was motivated in part by its success with VAR in 2021 competitions such as the CONCACAF Champions League, Gold Cup and Nations League Finals. The Confederation said progress on VAR has been “considerably” delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it now has qualified referees and venues to expand the use of the technology.
VAR still has its critics, despite receiving FIFA approval for use at the 2018 World Cup. Enthusiasts are concerned that requests for video analytics could delay matches and that the use of centralized review centers could be used. to distort decisions. Football already has a lot of drama about tackles and handball, they argue – VAR only prolongs those disputes and takes the emotion out of the game.
However, the arguments against the system seem to have lost some momentum. VAR helped reverse 17 of the 20 bad calls during the 2018 World Cup, and some supporters claimed that video revisions would have nullified other errors if they had been used more consistently. Like it or not, technology is more likely to appear in the background of football matches than before.
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