Thus far in the World Cup, the most dramatic, conclusive piece of action took place not on the field of play, but on the sidelines, where an American referee was alone under a Perspex canopy, studying a television while the players of Germany and South Korea stood and waited. The match had already gone into injury time at 0-0, and the official, Mark Geiger, was deciding whether the linesman was right to disallow a South Korean goal for offside.
His ruling would have very serious consequences, as overturning the linesman’s decision would almost certainly result in Germany – the World Cup holders – being knocked out of the tournament. He looked at the footage, he looked again, and once again. And then he blew his whistle to award the goal. Germany were out, and a nation (England, that is) rejoiced.
Victory for VAR
It was incontestably the right decision, and a victory for the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system, which is making its World Cup debut in Russia. Without VAR, the goal would have been disallowed, and doubtless Germany would have scored in the last minute to qualify for the next round, and then gone on to win the World Cup, beating England on penalties along the way.
Had this been the case, the linesman would have secured a place in World Cup mythology, alongside Diego Maradona and his “Hand of God” goal in 1986 and the Russian linesman who awarded a dubious goal to England in the 1966 World Cup final. The history of the game is littered with catastrophic mistakes, outrageous injustice and errors of judgement, and while football remains a sport and not a matter of life and death, it is worth considering whether these are merely threads that form an important part of its fabric.
Imagine a world where everything was as it should be, and human error was eradicated
But that’s not good enough in today’s world. We don’t like vagueness, or conjecture, or indeed nuance. A lot of rulings in football – as in other sports – require human interpretation and are by their nature subjective, but we crave certainty. We demand forensic examinations of decisions made in a split second, and as seen through one person’s eyes.
Straight and narrow
Technology plays an insidious role in so many areas of our lives – like offering, unbidden, suggestions on what type of music we may want to listen to, or where we might want to eat tonight. As ordinary citizens, we are under constant scrutiny, so why shouldn’t the all-seeing eye be there to ensure a football referee keeps on the straight and narrow?
It is natural that technology would be invited to play a part in sport, that most dynamic and unpredictable and, in football’s case, salient of human enterprises. And of course that’s right. VAR is a good thing, and its application has, in the main, been well managed. Given what’s at stake in the World Cup, we might as well try and ensure that justice is served. The idea that the Germans might still be in the tournament, on the back of an egregiously wrong decision, would be a travesty.
But imagine football without argument and iniquity. Imagine a world where everything was as it should be, and human error was eradicated. A lot more just, yes. But maybe a little less fun, too.
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